Reading the sea of monsters
by Percabethlvrknowsall
Summary: Our heroes are back again to read some more. Don't forget to review.
1. Chapter 1

Athena was waking everybody up when she came across Percy's room. Inside were Percy and Annabeth.

"AAAAAAAAAAH!" she screamed. Thalia, Nico, and Jason came running.

"What happened?" Thalia asked.

"They were in the same bed together!"

"MOTHER! I had a nightmare, and Percy was comforting me."

"Let's read a chapter while breakfast is cooking." Hestia calmly suggested.

"I will read." Jason said. Everybody gathered around and listened. But then there was a flash and Grover appeared again.

"I'm supposed to be here."

**"My Best Friend Shops For A Wedding Dress"**

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!" I'll let you guess who said that.

"Not Annabeth." Percy sighed.

**My nightmare started like this. I was standing on a deserted street in some little beach town. It was the middle of the night. A storm was blowing. Wind and rain ripped at the palm trees along the sidewalk. Pink and yellow stucco buildings lined the street, their windows boarded up. A block away, past a line of hibiscus bushes, the ocean churned.**

"Florida." Annabeth said.

**_Florida, _****I thought.**

"NOT YOU TOO ANNIE!" Nico and Thalia screamed. Annabeth rolled her eyes and said,

"Don't call me Annie."

**I thought. Though I wasn't sure how I knew that. I'd never been to Florida.**

"What is Florida?" Hercules asked.

"It's part of the United States, which is not founded until 1492." Annabeth replied.

**Then I heard hooves clattering against the pavement. I turned and saw my friend Grover running for his life.**

**Yeah, I said ****_hooves._**

**Grover is a satyr. **

"No. I thought he was a book." Nico said.

**From the waist up, he looks like a typical gangly teenager with a peach-fuzz goatee and a bad case of acne. **

"Gee thanks," said Grover

**He walks with a strange limp, but unless you happen to catch him without his pants on (which I don't recommend),**

Grover huffed

**you'd never know there was anything un-human about him. Baggy jeans and fake feet hide the fact that he's got furry hindquarters and hooves.**

**Grover had been my best friend in sixth grade. He'd gone on this adventure with me and a girl named Annabeth to save the world, but I hadn't seen him since last July, when he set off alone on a dangerous quest—a quest no satyr had ever returned from.**

**Anyway, in my dream, Grover was hauling goat tail, holding his human shoes in his hands the way he does when he needs to move fast. He clopped past the little tourist shops and surfboard rental places. The wind bent the palm trees almost to the ground.**

**Grover was terrified of something behind him. He must've just come from the beach. Wet sand was caked in his fur. He'd escaped from somewhere. He was trying to get away from ... something.**

"Yeah," said Grover, "that something almost tried to eat me alive!"

**A bone-rattling growl cut through the storm. Behind Grover, at the far end of the block, a shadowy figure loomed. It swatted aside a street lamp, which burst in a shower of sparks.**

**Grover stumbled, whimpering in fear. He muttered to himself, ****_Have to get away. Have to warn them!_**

"I was really hoping that I could get an empathy link through," said Grover

**I couldn't see what was chasing him, but I could hear it muttering and cursing. The ground shook as it got closer. Grover dashed around a street corner and faltered. He'd run into a dead-end courtyard full of shops. No time to back up. The nearest door had been blown open by the storm. The sign above the darkened display window read: ST. AUGUSTINE BRIDAL BOUTIQUE.**

"They have some nice selections," said Hera

"Yeah they do," said Aphrodite, smiling.

"What is a boutique?" Perseus asked.

"A mini shop were you buy stuff."

**Grover dashed inside. He dove behind a rack of wedding dresses.**

**The monster's shadow passed in front of the shop. I could smell the thing—a sickening combination of wet sheep wool and rotten meat and that weird sour body odor only monsters can have, like a skunk that's been living off Mexican food.**

"Where do you get this?" asked Thalia as everyone laughed, "You'd expect this from hyper Nico."

Nico was too busy laughing to retort.

"Polyphemus." Hercules whispered.

**Grover trembled behind the wedding dresses. The monster's shadow passed on.**

**Silence except for the rain. Grover took a deep breath. Maybe the thing was gone.**

**Then lightning flashed. The entire front of the store exploded, and a monstrous voice bellowed: "MIIIIINE!"**

**I sat bolt upright, shivering in my bed.**

"Hate it when that happens," said Percy, Theseus, and Orion. They smiled at each other. Hercules sneered.

Annabeth simply squeezed Percy's hand in reassurance.

**There was no storm. No monster.**

**Morning sunlight filtered through my bedroom window.**

**I thought I saw a shadow flicker across the glass—a humanlike shape.**

"Now why were you trying to peek outside my window?" asked Percy, breathing down Annabeth's neck, causing her to shiver, "Was it because you were trying to sneak a peek of me changing?"

"I do that now anyways," said Annabeth, "and no I was not."

"So you sneak a peek outside my window?" asked Percy, playfully

"Wha-no!" said Annabeth, blushing, "I meant seeing you change! You always tend to forget to get ready for our dates sometimes, so I see you changing in your cabin." Thalia and Nico were laughing at their friends.

**But then there was a knock on my bed room door—my mom called: "Percy, you're going to be late"—and the shadow at the window disappeared.**

**It must've been my imagination. A fifth-story window with a rickety old fire escape ... there couldn't have been anyone out there.**

**"Come on, dear," my mother called again. "Last day of school. You should be excited! You've almost made it!"**

"And you somehow manage to get kicked out," said Thalia. A very mature Percy stuck his tongue out.

**"Coming," I managed.**

**I felt under my pillow. My fingers closed reassuringly around the ballpoint pen I always slept with. I brought it out, studied the Ancient Greek writing engraved on the side: ****_Anaklusmos. _****Riptide.**

"You have Anaklusmos?" Hercules asked. Percy simply nodded.

**I thought about uncapping it, but something held me back. **

"Because you don't want to kill your girlfriend." Thalia laughed.

**I hadn't used Riptide for so long….**

"Oh boy," said Poseidon

**Besides, my mom had made me promise not to use deadly weapons in the apartment after I'd swung a javelin the wrong way and taken out her china cabinet. I put Anaklusmos on my nightstand and dragged myself out of bed.**

**I got dressed as quickly as I could. I tried not to think about my nightmare or monsters or the shadow at my window.**

**_Have to get away. Have to warn them!_**

**What had Grover meant?**

**I made a three-fingered claw over my heart and pushed outward—an ancient gesture Grover had once taught me for warding off evil.**

**The dream couldn't have been real.**

"Yes it could," said the demigods.

"Well I didn't know it then," said Percy.

_Amateur._ Thought Hercules.

**Last day of school. My mom was right, I should have been excited. For the first time in my life, I'd almost made it an entire year without getting expelled. No weird accidents. No fights in the classroom. No teachers turning into monsters and trying to kill me with poisoned cafeteria food or exploding homework. **

**Tomorrow, I'd be on my way to my favorite place in the world—Camp Half-Blood.**

**Only one more day to go. Surely even I couldn't mess that up.**

"Yes you can," said Thalia

**As usual, I didn't have a clue how wrong I was.**

"Like I said," said Nico

"You idiot!" said Thalia, slapping Nico, "I said that!"

**My mom made blue waffles and blue eggs for breakfast. She's funny that way, celebrating special occasions with blue food. I think it's her way of saying anything is possible. Percy can pass seventh grade. Waffles can be blue. Little miracles like that.**

**I ate at the kitchen table while my mom washed dishes. She was dressed in her work uniform—a starry blue skirt and a red-and-white striped blouse she wore to sell candy at Sweet on America. Her long brown hair was pulled back in a ponytail.**

**The waffles tasted great, but I guess I wasn't digging in like I usually did. My mom looked over and frowned. "Percy, are you all right?"**

"She can just tell when's something's off, can't she?" asked Annabeth, and got nods from those who've known her, even Poseidon.

**"Yeah ... fine."**

**But she could always tell when something was bothering me. She dried her hands and sat down across from me. "School, or ..."**

**She didn't need to finish. I knew what she was asking.**

**"I think Grover's in trouble," I said, and I told her about my dream.**

**She pursed her lips. We didn't talk much about the ****_other _****part of my life. We tried to live as normally as possible, but my mom knew all about Grover.**

"You make it sound so wrong," said Leo. Everybody jumped because he had been so quiet.

**"I wouldn't be too worried, dear," she said. "Grover is a big satyr now. If there were a problem, I'm sure we would've heard from ... from camp..." Her shoulders tensed as she said the word ****_camp._**

"Oh, is this the year?" asked Thalia

"Yeah," said Percy

**"What is it?" I asked.**

**"Nothing," she said. "I'll tell you what. This afternoon we'll celebrate the end of school. I'll take you and Tyson to Rockefeller Center—to that skateboard shop you like."**

Annabeth started feeling down when she heard Tyson's name, since she felt guilty about the way she treated him when they met. Percy, sensing this, squeezed her hand in reassurance.

**Oh, man, that was tempting. We were always struggling with money. Between my mom's night classes and my private school tuition, we could never afford to do special stuff like shop for a skateboard. But something in her voice bothered me.**

"What is a skateboard?" Theseus asked. Nico, Percy, Jason, Leo, Apollo, Hermes, and Grover just stared at him in horror.

**"Wait a minute," I said. "I thought we were packing me up for camp tonight."**

**She twisted her dishrag. "Ah, dear, about that ... I got a message from Chiron last night."**

**My heart sank. Chiron was the activities director at Camp Half-Blood. He wouldn't contact us unless something serious was going on. "What did he say?"**

**"He thinks ... it might not be safe for you to come to camp just yet. We might have to postpone."**

"How could Camp Half-Blood not be safe?" asked Athena.

_Luke._ The demigods who knew him thought.

**_"Postpone? _****Mom, how could it not be ****_safe_****? I'm a half-blood! It's like the only safe place on earth for me!"**

"Good thing you added 'for me'," said Jason, "I would have argued against it if it wasn't for that."

**"Usually, dear. But with the problems they're having—"**

"What problems?" asked Poseidon

**"****_What _****problems?"**

**"Percy ... I'm very, very sorry. I was hoping to talk to you about it this afternoon. I can't explain it all now. I'm not even sure Chiron can. Everything happened so suddenly."**

**My mind was reeling. How could I ****_not _****go to camp? I wanted to ask a million questions, but just then the kitchen clock chimed the half-hour.**

**My mom looked almost relieved. "Seven-thirty, dear. You should go. Tyson will be waiting."**

**"But—"**

**"Percy, we'll talk this afternoon. Go on to school."**

**That was the last thing I wanted to do, but my mom had this fragile look in her eyes—a kind of warning, like if I pushed her too hard she'd start to cry.**

"Women and their tears," said Apollo, "worst weapon a female could ever have." Aphrodite, Athena, Annabeth, Thalia, Piper, and the rest of the females looked smug.

**Besides, she was right about my friend Tyson. I had to meet him at the subway station on time or he'd get upset. He was scared of traveling underground alone.**

**I gathered up my stuff, but I stopped in the doorway. "Mom, this problem at camp. Does it... could it have anything to do with my dream about Grover?"**

**She wouldn't meet my eyes. "We'll talk this afternoon, dear. I'll explain ... as much as I can."**

**Reluctantly, I told her good-bye. I jogged downstairs to catch the Number Two train.**

**I didn't know it at the time, but my mom and I would never get to have our afternoon talk.**

**In fact, I wouldn't be seeing home for a long, long time.**

"Oh boy," said Poseidon, "I knew I wouldn't like it ever since she mentioned problems."

**As I stepped outside, I glanced at the brownstone building across the street. Just for a second I saw a dark shape in the morning sunlight—a human silhouette against the brick wall, a shadow that belonged to no one.**

"Actually it belonged to Nobody," said Percy, laughing along with Annabeth and Grover.

**Then it rippled and vanished.**

"Annabeth, I understand that he's your boyfriend, but do you really need to stalk him?" Thalia asked.


	2. Chapter 2

**I Play Dodgeball with Cannibals**

"This should be fun," said Nico, smiling creepily. Hercules was about to ask what dodgeball is, when Annabeth got up and explained to the heroes about all the new technology.

**My day started normal. Or as normal as it ever gets at Meriwether College Prep.**

"Forget that," said Thalia, "how about as normal as it ever gets for Percy's life."

**See, it's this "progressive" school in downtown Manhattan, which means we sit on beanbag chairs instead of at desks, and we don't get grades, and the teachers wear jeans and rock concert T-shirts to work.**

"That sounds like a great place to go to school," said Nico.

"Did they ever wear GreenDay or Fall Out Boy?" Thalia asked.

**That's all cool with me. I mean, I'm ADHD and dyslexic, like most half-bloods, so I'd never done that great in regular schools even before they kicked me out. The only bad thing about Meriwether was that the teachers always looked on the bright side of things, and the kids weren't always ... well, bright.**

"You got that right," snorted Thalia

"Percy can be bright when he wants to be," said Annabeth, Percy who looked hurt, got a kiss from his girlfriend.

**Take my first class today: English. The whole middle school had read this book called**_**Lord of the Flies,**_**where all these kids get marooned on an island and go psycho.**

"You read a book?" asked Thalia and Nico.

"I can read a book," said Percy, "I just choose not to because it's hard for me. Plus, they didn't have any Greek copies, so it was even harder."

"That's no excuse," said Thalia and Nico

"Okay then," said Percy, "I'll get some English copies for you guys and see how you read them."

That shut Thalia and Nico up

**So for our final exam, our teachers sent us into the break yard to spend an hour with no adult supervision to see what would happen. What happened was a massive wedgie contest between the seventh and eighth graders, two pebble fights, and a full-tackle basketball game.**

**The school bully, Matt Sloan, led most of those activities.**

"Add one more to the people Percy hates," said nico

"You don't even know him, do you?" asked Hades

"No," said Nico, "but Percy hates all bullies, so he's going to hate Matt Sloan."

"Of course I hate him. He bullied Tyson."

**Sloan wasn't big or strong, but he acted like he was. He had eyes like a pit bull, and shaggy black hair, and he always dressed in expensive but sloppy clothes, like he wanted everybody to see how little he cared about his family's money. One of his front teeth was chipped from the time he'd taken his daddy's Porsche for a joyride and run into a PLEASE SLOW DOWN FOR CHILDREN sign.**

"That is a poor excuse for a child," said Hera

**Anyway, Sloan was giving everybody wedgies until he made the mistake of trying it on my friend Tyson.**

"Tyson's more than a friend," said Percy, while Poseidon perked up at the mention of his Cyclopes son, wondering if it's the same one he's thinking about.

"Who is this Tyson?" Hercules asked.

"TYson is my baby cyclopes brother." Hercules sneered.

**Tyson was the only homeless kid at Meriwether College Prep. As near as my mom and I could figure, he'd been abandoned by his parents when he was very young, probably because he was so ... different.**

"He is," said Annabeth

**He was six-foot-three and built like the Abominable Snowman, but he cried a lot and was scared of just about everything, including his own reflection.**

"What a crybaby," said Hercules.

"That cry baby is now a Olympian army general," glared Percy, while Poseidon looked proud, and confused, as was the rest of the Olympians, as to how he was able to do that.

"Isn't Tyson a mortal?" asked Athena

"Not telling," said Percy

**His face was kind of misshapen and brutal-looking. I couldn't tell you what color his eyes were,**

"Eye," said Annabeth

**because I could never make myself look higher than his crooked teeth. His voice was deep, but he talked funny, like a much younger kid—I guess because he'd never gone to school before coming to Meriwether. He wore tattered jeans, grimy size-twenty sneakers, and a plaid flannel shirt with holes in it. He smelled like a New York City alleyway, because that's where he lived, in a cardboard refrigerator box off 72nd Street.**

"That's terrible," said the majority of the female Olympians

**Meriwether Prep had adopted him as a community service project so all the students could feel good about themselves. Unfortunately, most of them couldn't stand Tyson. Once they discovered he was a big softie, despite his massive strength and his scary looks, they made themselves feel good by picking on him. I was pretty much his only friend, which meant he was **_**my **_**only friend.**

"What do you mean 'you're only friend'?" asked Annabeth

"Well, you're my girlfriend, so that can't be taken," said Percy, "and I meant he was my only friend at Meriwether Prep."

**My mom had complained to the school a million times that they weren't doing enough to help him. She'd called social services, but nothing ever seemed to happen. The social workers claimed Tyson didn't exist. They swore up and down that they'd visited the alley we described and couldn't find him, though how you miss a giant kid living in a refrigerator box, I don't know.**

"When can we have a break?" Nico and Leo whined.

"After this chapter."

**Anyway, Matt Sloan snuck up behind him and tried to give him a wedgie, and Tyson panicked. He swatted Sloan away a little too hard. Sloan flew fifteen feet and got tangled in the little kids' tire swing.**

"Take that Sloan!" said those who knew Tyson

**"You freak!" Sloan yelled. "Why don't you go back to your cardboard box!"**

**Tyson started sobbing. He sat down on the jungle gym so hard he bent the bar, and buried his head in his hands.**

"Big kid," said Hephaestus

**"Take it back, Sloan!" I shouted.**

**Sloan just sneered at me. "Why do you even bother, Jackson? You might have **_**friends **_**if you weren't always sticking up for that freak."**

**I balled my fists. I hoped my face wasn't as red as it felt. "He's**_**not**_**a freak. He's just..."**

**I tried to think of the right thing to say, but Sloan wasn't listening. He and his big ugly friends were too busy laughing. I wondered if it were my imagination, or if Sloan had more goons hanging around him than usual. I was used to seeing him with two or three, but today he had like, half a dozen more, and I was pretty sure I'd never seen them before.**

"You're very observant boy," said Artemis

"Um, thank you," said Percy

"I wish I got compliments from Lady Artemis," whispered Grover

**"Just wait till PE, Jackson," Sloan called. "You are **_**so **_**dead."**

"He would have been if it weren't for me," said Annabeth, causing people, except Grover, Thalia, and Nico, to wonder what she meant.

"I was doing just fine on my own thank you very much."

"Percy if it haden't been for me, you would have been pulverized."

"No I wouldn't."

In the background, they kept on arguing, while Thalia and Nico said,

"This always happens. At least two times a day they fight over some stupid thing. Annabeth will stalk away, though Percy sometimes walks away too. Percy chases after her apologizing and pouting. She forgives him, and then he creates a blue toasted marshmellow supreme and packs a picnic. They kiss and make up." Two seconds later, Annabeth got up and left, with Percy right on her heels. They came back an hour later and Annabeth had big cuddley dolphin, a box of chocolates, and two boquets of water lilies.

**When first period ended, our English teacher, Mr. de Milo, came outside to inspect the carnage. He pronounced that we'd understood**_**Lord of the Flies**_**perfectly. We all passed his course, and we should never, never grow up to be violent people.**

"Like telling them would help," snorted Thalia

**Matt Sloan nodded earnestly, then gave me a chip-toothed grin.**

**I had to promise to buy Tyson an extra peanut butter sandwich at lunch to get him to stop sobbing.**

**"I ... I am a freak?" he asked me.**

**"No," I promised, gritting my teeth. "Matt Sloan is the freak."**

**Tyson sniffled. "You are a good friend. Miss you next year if ... if I can't ..."**

**His voice trembled. I realized he didn't know if he'd be invited back next year for the community service project. I wondered if the headmaster had even bothered talking to him about it.**

**"Don't worry, big guy," I managed. "Everything's going to be fine."**

**Tyson gave me such a grateful look I felt like a big liar. How could I promise a kid like him that**_**anything**_**would be fine?**

"He can do that to you," said Annabeth, somewhat depressed. Percy squeezed her hand in assurance.

**Our next exam was science. Mrs. Tesla told us that we had to mix chemicals until we succeeded in making something explode, Tyson was my lab partner. His hands were way too big for the tiny vials we were supposed to use. He accidentally knocked a tray of chemicals off the counter and made an orange mushroom cloud in the trashcan.**

"They actually give you grades for blowing stuff up?" Annabeth asked Percy.

"It really was stupid." He replied.

**After Mrs. Tesla evacuated the lab and called the hazardous waste removal squad, she praised Tyson and me for being natural chemists. We were the first ones who'd ever aced her exam in under thirty seconds.**

"Wow, Kelp Head actually aced a test," said Thalia, "and was the first one to do so. The world has to be ending."

Percy pouted a little, and Annabeth was worried that Nico and Thalia's comments were affecting Percy.

**I was glad the morning went fast, because it kept me from thinking too much about my problems. I couldn't stand the idea that something might be wrong at camp. Even worse, I couldn't shake the memory of my bad dream. I had a terrible feeling that Grover was in danger.**

"Listen to that feeling Percy," pleaded Poseidon, "help your friends."

**In social studies, while we were drawing latitude/longitude maps, I opened my notebook and stared at the photo inside—my friend Annabeth**

"Just a friend?" asked Annabeth

"Best Friend and Girlfriend," corrected Percy

Annabeth snuggled into him, pleased, while Thalia and Nico pretended to puke.

**on vacation in Washington, D.C. She was wearing jeans and a denim jacket over her orange Camp Half-Blood T-shirt. Her blond hair was pulled back in a bandanna. She was standing in front of the Lincoln Memorial with her arms crossed, looking extremely pleased with herself, like she'd personally designed the place.**

"I was just happy to be there," said Annabeth

**See, Annabeth wants to be an architect when she grows up, so she's always visiting famous monuments and stuff. She's weird that way.**

"Weird?" asked Annabeth

"We're all weird in a way," said Percy, "Nico has dual personality, Thalia has her odd fear, Hazel's not from this century, Frank has a weird power, I like blue food, Annabeth's obsession with architecture, and Leo being Leo."

"See, even Percy thinks you're weird and he doesn't even know you!" said Piper.

"I think even the stupidist person alive would know that something is VERY wrong with Leo."

**She'd e-mailed me the picture after spring break, and every once in a while I'd look at it just to remind myself she was real and Camp Half-Blood hadn't just been my imagination.**

**I wished Annabeth were here. She'd know what to make of my dream. I'd never admit it to her, but she was smarter than me,**

"Of course I am," said Annabeth.

"She's the smartest mortal alive," said Thalia

**even if she was annoying sometimes.**

Annabeth huffed and crossed their arms, while Percy said, "Don't we all annoy each other."

Annabeth simply turned into Percy's body while smiling into him, and Percy wrapped his arms around her.

**I was about to close my notebook when Matt Sloan reached over and ripped the photo out of the rings.**

**"Hey!" I protested.**

**Sloan checked out the picture and his eyes got wide. "No way, Jackson. Who is that? She is **_**not **_**your—"**

"Yes I am," said Annabeth, "you got a problem with that?"

**"Give it back!" My ears felt hot.**

**Sloan handed the photo to his ugly buddies, who snickered and started ripping it up to make spit wads. They were new kids who must've been visiting, because they were all wearing those stupid HI! MY NAME IS: tags from the admissions office. They must've had a weird sense of humor, too, because they'd all filled in strange names like: MARROW SUCKER, SKULL EATER, and JOE BOB. No human beings had names like that.**

"Should have been your first clue," said thalia

"Hey, I haven't seen the video at this point, so I'm somewhat slow here," said Percy

"Admitting you're slow is the first step to acceptance," said Nico

"When did you see the video?" asked Thalia

"It was after me and Annabeth got together," said Percy, careful to avoid talk of the war.

**"These guys are moving here next year," Sloan bragged, like that was supposed to scare me. "I bet they can **_**pay **_**the tuition, too, unlike your retard friend."**

**"He's **_**not **_**retarded." I had to try really, really hard not to punch Sloan in the face.**

"You really should control your impulses of when to listen to it and when not to," said Thalias

**"You're such a loser, Jackson. Good thing I'm gonna put you out of your misery next period."**

**His huge buddies chewed up my photo. I wanted to pulverize them, but I was under strict orders from Chiron never to take my anger out on regular mortals, no matter how obnoxious they were. I had to save my fighting for monsters.**

**Still, part of me thought, if Sloan only knew who I really was ...**

"You're right," said Thalia, "if he knew, then he'd be in freaking China by now."

**The bell rang.**

**As Tyson and I were leaving class, a girl's voice whispered, "Percy!"**

**I looked around the locker area, but nobody was paying me any attention. Like any girl at Meriwether would ever be caught dead calling my name.**

"Why is that?" asked Annabeth

"I get lost when it comes to girls," said Percy, "plus, being with Tyson did not help at all."

**Before I had time to consider whether or not I'd been imagining things, a crowd of kids rushed for the gym, carrying Tyson and me along with them. It was time for PE. Our coach had promised us a free-for-all dodgeball game, and Matt Sloan had promised to kill me.**

**The gym uniform at Meriwether is sky blue shorts and tie-dyed T-shirts. Fortunately, we did most of our athletic stuff inside, so we didn't have to jog through Tribeca looking like a bunch of boot-camp hippie children.**

"Boot-camp hippie children," snickered Nico, who got slapped by Thalia

**I changed as quickly as I could in the locker room because I didn't want to deal with Sloan. I was about to leave when Tyson called, "Percy?"**

**He hadn't changed yet. He was standing by the weight room door, clutching his gym clothes. "Will you ... uh ..."**

"Get down on your knees for me?" filled in Nico, who got slapped by Thalia and Percy.

"No!" said Percy, while Thalia said, "There are ten-year olds present!"

"No there aren't." Leo said.

"Apollo, Hermes, Percy, and Leo are just children."

"This child can whip your butt." Percy said.

"I doubt that." And thus began a shouting match.

"This usually happens when Percy, Nico, or Thalia challenge each other. They have shouting match, then bring out their weapons. And then they start using their powers. The las time this happened, we had to rebuild the big house." Annabeth explained. She whistled and all three of them shut up.

**"Oh. Yeah." I tried not to sound aggravated about it. "Yeah, sure, man."**

**Tyson ducked inside the weight room. I stood guard outside the door while he changed. I felt kind of awkward doing this, but he asked me to most days. I think it's because he's completely hairy and he's got weird scars on his back that I've never had the courage to ask him about.**

"Well, you know now," said Annabeth

**Anyway, I'd learned the hard way that if people teased Tyson while he was dressing out, he'd get upset and start ripping the doors off lockers.**

"Sensitive isn't he?" asked Aphrodite

**When we got into the gym, Coach Nunley was sitting at his little desk reading**_**Sports Illustrated.**_**Nunley was about a million years old, with bifocals and no teeth and a greasy wave of gray hair. He reminded me of the Oracle at Camp Half-Blood—which was a shriveled-up mummy—except Coach Nunley moved a lot less and he never billowed green smoke.**

Those who saw the mummified Oracle shuddered

**Well, at least not that I'd observed.**

**Matt Sloan said, "Coach, can I be captain?"**

**"Eh?" Coach Nunley looked up from his magazine. "Yeah," he mumbled. "Mm-hmm."**

**Sloan grinned and took charge of the picking. He made me the other team's captain, but it didn't matter who I picked, because all the jocks and the popular kids moved over to Sloan's side. So did the big group of visitors.**

**On my side I had Tyson, Corey Bailer the computer geek, Raj Mandali the calculus whiz, and a half dozen other kids who always got harassed by Sloan and his gang. Normally I would've been okay with just Tyson—he was worth half a team all by himself—but the visitors on Sloan's team were almost as tall and strong-looking as Tyson, and there were six of them.**

**Matt Sloan spilled a cage full of balls in the middle of the gym.**

**"Scared," Tyson mumbled. "Smell funny."**

"Second clue," said Hercules said.

"I didn't know he was one at the time," said Percy.

"But you should have." Hercules replied.

"You really want to test me."

"I can't beat you with a pinky."

"HA!" Thalia, Nico, Percy, and Annabeth laughed.

"I amm the strongest demigod ever created. You can't beat me." Percy said.

"We'll test that theory during the next break. Me against fishy, emo boy, and gothic girl."

"HOW DARE YOU CALL ME FISHY/EMO BOY/ GOTHIC GIRL!" Percy, Nico, and Thalia screeched. Percy had an aura around him that was green, like the sea. Nico's aura was black. Thalia's was blue. Ares peed his pants a little bit because her was scared.

**I looked at him. "What smells funny?" Because I didn't figure he was talking about himself.**

**"Them." Tyson pointed at Sloan's new friends. "Smell funny."**

**The visitors were cracking their knuckles, eyeing us like it was slaughter time. I couldn't help wondering where they were from. Someplace where they fed kids raw meat and beat them with sticks.**

"If only," said Annabeth

**Sloan blew the coach's whistle and the game began. Sloan's team ran for the center line. On my side, Raj Mandali yelled something in Urdu, probably "I have to go potty!" and ran for the exit. Corey Bailer tried to crawl behind the wall mat and hide. The rest of my team did their best to cower in fear and not look like targets.**

"They're the ones who'll get aimed for first," said Thalia

**"Tyson," I said. "Let's g—"**

**A ball slammed into my gut. I sat down hard in the middle of the gym floor. The other team exploded in laughter.**

**My eyesight was fuzzy. I felt like I'd just gotten the Heimlich maneuver from a gorilla. I couldn't believe anybody could throw that hard.**

**Tyson yelled, "Percy, duck!"**

**I rolled as another dodgeball whistled past my ear at the speed of sound.**

_**Whooom!**_

**It hit the wall mat, and Corey Bailer yelped.**

**"Hey!" I yelled at Sloan's team. "You could kill somebody!"**

"I think that was what they were aiming for," said Thalia, as if it were obvious. Percy was still too mad to even retort back.

**The visitor named Joe Bob grinned at me evilly. Somehow, he looked a lot bigger now ... even taller than Tyson. His biceps bulged beneath his T-shirt. "I hope so, Perseus Jackson! I hope so!"**

"How did they know you're real name?" asked Poseidon

"You'll see," said Percy

**The way he said my name sent a chill down my back. Nobody called me Perseus except those who knew my true identity. Friends ... and enemies.**

**What had Tyson said?**_**They smell funny.**_

**Monsters.**

"Wow," said Thalia, "he actually paid attention and figured something out. Congratulations!"

Percy simply pouted, and Annabeth noted that he seemed to be a little more disheartened after she said this.

**All around Matt Sloan, the visitors were growing in size. They were no longer kids. They were eight-foot-tall giants with wild eyes, pointy teeth, and hairy arms tattooed with snakes and hula women and Valentine hearts.**

**Matt Sloan dropped his ball. "Whoa! You're not from Detroit! Who …"**

"Of course not," said Annabeth

"They're from Canada," said Percy.

**The other kids on his team started screaming and backing toward the exit, but the giant named Marrow Sucker threw a ball with deadly accuracy. It streaked past Raj Mandali just as he was about to leave and hit the door, slamming it shut like magic. Raj and some of the other kids banged on it desperately but it wouldn't budge.**

**"Let them go!" I yelled at the giants.**

**The one called Joe Bob growled at me. He had a tattoo on his biceps that said**_**: JB luvs Babycakes.**_**"And lose our tasty morsels? No, Son of the Sea God. We Laistrygonians aren't just playing for your death. We want lunch!"**

"Lastrygoinans?" asked Frank, "Didn't you say they were Canadians?"

"That's what Annabeth told me," said Percy, pointing at Annabeth, who rolled her eyes.

**He waved his hand and a new batch of dodgeballs appeared on the center line—but these balls weren't made of red rubber. They were bronze, the size of cannon balls, perforated like riffle balls with fire bubbling out the holes. They must've been searing hot, but the giants picked them up with their bare hands.**

"Really explosive too," said Frank.

"Wait," said Annabeth, "you came across Lastrygonians when you were with them?"

"Yeah."

**"Coach!" I yelled.**

**Nunley looked up sleepily, but if he saw anything abnormal about the dodgeball game, he didn't let on. That's the problem with mortals. A magical force called the Mist obscures the true appearance of monsters and gods from their vision, so mortals tend to see only what they can understand. Maybe the coach saw a few eighth graders pounding the younger kids like usual. Maybe the other kids saw Matt Sloan's thugs getting ready to toss Molotov cock tails around. (It wouldn't have been the first time.) At any rate, I was pretty sure nobody else realized we were dealing with genuine man-eating bloodthirsty monsters.**

**"Yeah. Mm-hmm," Coach muttered. "Play nice."**

"Such a good teacher," noted Athena

**And he went back to his magazine.**

**The giant named Skull Eater threw his ball. I dove aside as the fiery bronze comet sailed past my shoulder.**

**"Corey!" I screamed.**

"What?" asked Annabeth, but Percy just shrugged

**Tyson pulled him out from behind the exercise mat just as the ball exploded against it, blasting the mat to smoking shreds.**

**"Run!" I told my teammates. "The other exit!"**

"They're not going to make it," said Thalia

**They ran for the locker room, but with another wave of Joe Bob's hand, that door also slammed shut.**

**"No one leaves unless you're out!" Joe Bob roared. "And you're not out until we eat you!"**

**He launched his own fireball. My teammates scattered as it blasted a crater in the gym floor.**

**I reached for Riptide, which I always kept in my pocket, but then I realized I was wearing gym shorts.**

Everyone face palmed

"I didn't have any pockets in my gym shorts," said Percy, "where was I going to keep it?"

**I **_**had **_**no pockets. Riptide was tucked in my jeans inside my gym locker. And the locker room door was sealed. I was completely defenseless.**

**Another fireball came streaking toward me. Tyson pushed me out of the way, but the explosion still blew me head over heels. I found myself sprawled on the gym floor, dazed from smoke, my tie-dyed T-shirt peppered with sizzling holes. Just across the center line, two hungry giants were glaring down at me.**

**"Flesh!" they bellowed. "Hero flesh for lunch!" They both took aim.**

**"Percy needs help!" Tyson yelled, and he jumped in front of me just as they threw their balls.**

**"Tyson!" I screamed, but it was too late.**

**Both balls slammed into him ... but no ... he'd caught them. Somehow Tyson, who was so clumsy he knocked over lab equipment and broke playground structures on a regular basis, had caught two fiery metal balls speeding toward him at a zillion miles an hour.**

**He sent them hurtling back toward their surprised owners, who screamed, "BAAAAAD!" as the bronze spheres exploded against their chests.**

"I love that kid," said Aphrodite

**The giants disintegrated in twin columns of flame—a sure sign they were monsters, all right. Monsters don't die. They just dissipate into smoke and dust, which saves heroes a lot of trouble cleaning up after a fight.**

"You got that right," said many of the present demigods

**"My brothers!" Joe Bob the Cannibal wailed. He flexed his muscles and his **_**Babycakes **_**tattoo rippled. "You will pay for their destruction!"**

**"Tyson!" I said. "Look out!"**

**Another comet hurtled toward us. Tyson just had time to swat it aside. It flew straight over Coach Nunley's head and landed in the bleachers with a huge KA-BOOM!**

**Kids were running around screaming, trying to avoid the sizzling craters in the floor. Others were banging on the door, calling for help. Sloan himself stood petrified in the middle of the court, watching in disbelief as balls of death flew around him.**

**Coach Nunley still wasn't seeing anything. He tapped his hearing aid like the explosions were giving him interference, but he kept his eyes on his magazine.**

**Surely the whole school could hear the noise. The head master, the police, somebody would come help us.**

"With your luck," said Thalia, "I doubt that any of them would help you."

**"Victory will be ours!" roared Joe Bob the Cannibal. "We will feast on your bones!"**

**I wanted to tell him he was taking the dodgeball game way too seriously, but before I could, he hefted another ball. The other three giants followed his lead.**

**I knew we were dead. Tyson couldn't deflect all those balls at once. His hands**_**had**_**to be seriously burned from blocking the first volley. Without my sword ...**

**I had a crazy idea.**

"It's going to work," said Nico.

"And your crazy ideas work so well."

"But they do. At least, one of them did."

"Quod erat unum tempus Dudus. Tum quoque paene interiit." Percy said in Latin.

"Sed opus. Eam salvus triste blandeque coruscant a questus occidi. Si recte memini vicistis Pater meus qui est tres magnas!" Nico replied.

Jason smirked and laughed at everybody's expressions. o.O

**I ran toward the locker room.**

**"Move!" I told my teammates. "Away from the door."**

**Explosions behind me. Tyson had batted two of the balls back toward their owners and blasted them to ashes.**

**That left two giants still standing.**

**A third ball hurtled straight at me. I forced myself to wait—one Mississippi, two Mississippi—then dove aside as the fiery sphere demolished the locker room door.**

"I see what you're doing," said Athena, "It was a crazy plan."

**Now, I figured that the built-up gas in most boys' locker rooms was enough to cause an explosion, so I wasn't surprised when the flaming dodgeball ignited a huge**_**WHOOOOOOOM!**_

**The wall blew apart. Locker doors, socks, athletic sup porters, and other various nasty personal belongings rained all over the gym.**

**I turned just in time to see Tyson punch Skull Eater in the face. The giant crumpled. But the last giant, Joe Bob, had wisely held on to his own ball, waiting for an opportunity. He threw just as Tyson was turning to face him.**

**"No!" I yelled.**

**The ball caught Tyson square in the chest. He slid the length of the court and slammed into the back wall, which cracked and partially crumbled on top of him, making a hole right onto Church Street. I didn't see how Tyson could still be alive, but he only looked dazed. The bronze ball was smoking at his feet. Tyson tried to pick it up, but he fell back, stunned, into a pile of cinder blocks.**

Many people present were slightly amazed.

**"Well!" Joe Bob gloated. "I'm the last one standing! I'll have enough meat to bring Babycakes a doggie bag!"**

"I think Babycakes can do longer without food," said Nico

**He picked up another ball and aimed it at Tyson.**

**"Stop!" I yelled. "It's me you want!"**

**The giant grinned. "You wish to die first, young hero?"**

"No," said many of those who cared about Percy, while Zeus and Hades, were hopeful that he did.

**I had to do something. Riptide had to be around here somewhere.**

**Then I spotted my jeans in a smoking heap of clothes right by the giant's feet. If I could only get there... I knew it was hopeless, but I charged.**

**The giant laughed. "My lunch approaches." He raised his arm to throw. I braced myself to die.**

Poseidon fell into a puddle.

**Suddenly the giant's body went rigid. His expression changed from gloating to surprise. Right where his belly button should've been, his T-shirt ripped open and he grew something like a horn—no, not a horn—the glowing tip of a blade.**

**The ball dropped out of his hand. The monster stared down at the knife that had just run him through from behind.**

"Knife?" asked pretty much everyone who didn't know the story and were paying attention.

**He muttered, "Ow," and burst into a cloud of green flame, which I figured was going to make Babycakes pretty upset.**

**Standing in the smoke was my friend Annabeth. Her face was grimy and scratched. She had a ragged backpack slung over her shoulder, her baseball cap tucked in her pocket, a bronze knife in her hand, and a wild look in her storm-gray eyes, like she'd just been chased a thousand miles by ghosts.**

"Just bad memories," said Annabeth

**Matt Sloan, who'd been standing there dumbfounded the whole time, finally came to his senses. He blinked at Annabeth, as if he dimly recognized her from my notebook picture. "That's the girl ... That's the girl—"**

"You bet it is," said Annabeth and Percy.

**Annabeth punched him in the nose and knocked him flat.**

**"And **_**you,"**_**she told him, "lay off my friend."**

"Friend?" asked Percy, innocently

"Best friend and boyfriend," corrected Annabeth, rolling her eyes.

**The gym was in flames. Kids were still running around screaming. I heard sirens wailing and a garbled voice over the intercom. Through the glass windows of the exit doors, I could see the headmaster, Mr. Bonsai, wrestling with the lock, a crowd of teachers piling up behind him.**

**"Annabeth ..." I stammered. "How did you ... how long have you ..."**

**"Pretty much all morning." She sheathed her bronze knife. "I've been trying to find a good time to talk to you, but you were never alone."**

"So it was you who were peaking in through his window, right?" asked Hermes, causing Annabeth to blush as she nodded

**"The shadow I saw this morning—that was—" My face felt hot. "Oh my gods, you were looking in my bed room window?"**

"**There's no time to explain!" she snapped, though she looked a little red-faced herself. "I just didn't want to—"**

**"There!" a woman screamed. The doors burst open and the adults came pouring in.**

**"Meet me outside," Annabeth told me. "And him." She pointed to Tyson, who was still sitting dazed against the wall. Annabeth gave him a look of distaste that I didn't quite understand. "You'd better bring him."**

"Why are you so distasteful towards Tyson?" asked Hermes, "What has he ever done to you?"

"It's not him," said Annabeth, "it's just I had bad encounters with Cyclopes before him."

_**"What?"**_

**"No time!" she said. "Hurry!"**

**She put on her Yankees baseball cap, which was a magic gift from her mom, and instantly vanished.**

"Thanks for helping me," grumbled Percy, while Annabeth simply gave him a kiss.

**That left me standing alone in the middle of the burning gymnasium when the headmaster came charging in with half the faculty and a couple of police officers.**

**"Percy Jackson?" Mr. Bonsai said. "What ... how ..."**

"Seriously?" asked Hermes, Apollo, and Leo, "Mr. _Bonsai_?"

"Isn't that some sort of Japanese thing?" asked Nico

"Yeah, the Bonsai Tree," said Annabeth

**Over by the broken wall, Tyson groaned and stood up from the pile of cinder blocks. "Head hurts."**

"Wow," said Apollo, "tough kid."

**Matt Sloan was coming around, too. He focused on me with a look of terror. "Percy did it, Mr. Bonsai! He set the whole building on fire. Coach Nunley will tell you! He saw it all!"**

"Wow, you never get a break, do you?" asked Thalia, and Percy shook his head

**Coach Nunley had been dutifully reading his magazine, but just my luck—he chose that moment to look up when Sloan said his name. "Eh? Yeah. Mm-hmm."**

**The other adults turned toward me. I knew they would never believe me, even if I could tell them the truth.**

"You're right for once," said Hephaestus, "mortals tend to be more disbelieving when it comes to kids."

**I grabbed Riptide out of my ruined jeans, told Tyson, "Come on!" and jumped through the gaping hole in the side of the building.**

"Can I just say, that's kind of a James Bond or a Sherlock Holmes move." Hermes said.

"Break time."


	3. ch 3

_Hey guys. SO I know I haven't updated in a long time and I'm sorry. Now ON WITH THE SHOW!_

"We hail a taxi of eternal torment," Piper read.

Poseidon paled.

Annabeth was waiting for us in an alley down Church Street. She pulled Tyson and me off the sidewalk just as a fire truck screamed past, heading for Meriwether Prep.

"Where'd you find him?" she demanded, pointing at Tyson.

"That was rude.I thought you liked Tyson." Piper said.

"I know and I'm sorry."Annabeth said looking down.

Percy gripped her hand.

Now, under different circumstances, I would've been really happy to see her. We'd made our peace last summer, despite the fact that her mom was Athena and didn't get along with my dad. I'd missed Annabeth probably more than I wanted to admit.

"Awww" Aphrodite cooed.

Percy blushed.

"Little Pwercy Wercy missed his girlfriend." Nico said.

"Of course I did."

But I'd just been attacked by cannibal giants, Tyson had saved my life three or four times, and all Annabeth could do was glare at him like he was the problem.

"He's my friend," I told her.

"Is he homeless?"

"What does that have to do with anything? He can hear you, you know. Why don't you ask him?"

She looked surprised. "He can talk?"

"Sorry."Annabeth said.

"It's okay."

"I talk," Tyson admitted. "You are pretty."

"Ah! Gross!" Annabeth stepped away from him.

"He's wrong. You're drop dead gorgeous." Percy said.

I couldn't believe she was being so rude. I examined Tyson's hands, which I was sure must've been badly scorched by the flaming dodge balls, but they looked fine-grimy and scarred, with dirty fingernails the size of potato chips-but they always looked like that. "Tyson," I said in disbelief. "Your hands aren't even burned."

"Of course not," Annabeth muttered. "I'm surprised the Laistrygonians had the guts to attack you with him around."

Tyson seemed fascinated by Annabeth's blond hair. He tried to touch it, but she smacked his hand away.

"Touchy." Travis said.

Annabeth smacked him.

"Annabeth," I said, "what are you talking about? Laistry-what?"

"Laistrygonians. The monsters in the gym. They're a race of giant cannibals who live in the far north. Odysseus ran into them once, but I've never seen them as far south as New York before."

"Laistry-I can't even say that. What would you call them in English?"

She thought about it for a moment. "Canadians," she decided. "Now come on, we have to get out of here."

"Hey!" Frank yelled.

"The police'll be after me."

"Aren't the always?" Nico asked.

"That's the least of our problems," she said. "Have you been having the dreams?"

"The dreams … about Grover?"

Her face turned pale. "Grover? No, what about Grover?"

I told her my dream. "Why? What were you dreaming about?"

"Yeah Annabeth what were you dreaming about." Connor said wiggling his eyebrows.

"Not that!" Annabeth face was beat red.

Her eyes looked stormy, like her mind was racing a million miles an hour.

"Camp," she said at last. "Big trouble at camp."

Percy's expression darkened.

"My mom was saying the same thing! But what kind of trouble?"

"I don't know exactly. Something's wrong. We have to get there right away. Monsters have been chasing me all the way from Virginia, trying to stop me. Have you had a lot of attacks?"

I shook my head. "None all year … until today."

"None? But how …" Her eyes drifted to Tyson. "Oh."

"What do you mean, 'oh'?"

Tyson raised his hand like he was still in class. "Canadians in the gym called Percy something … Son of the Sea God?"

Annabeth and I exchanged looks.

I didn't know how I could explain, but I figured Tyson deserved the truth after almost getting killed.

"Big guy," I said, "you ever hear those old stories about the Greek gods? Like Zeus, Poseidon, Athena-"

"Yes," Tyson said.

"Well … those gods are still alive. They kind of follow Western Civilization around, living in the strongest countries, so like now they're in the U.S. And sometimes they have kids with mortals. Kids called half-bloods."

"Yes," Tyson said, like he was still waiting for me to get to the point.

"Uh, well, Annabeth and I are half-bloods," I said. "We're like … heroes-in-training. And whenever monsters pick up our scent, they attack us. That's what those giants were in the gym. Monsters."

"Yes."

I stared at him. He didn't seem surprised or confused by what I was telling him, which surprised and confused me. "So … you believe me?"

"Of course he's part of it."Nico said.

Tyson nodded. "But you are … Son of the Sea God?"

"Yeah," I admitted. "My dad is Poseidon."

Tyson frowned. Now he looked confused. "But then …"

A siren wailed. A police car raced past our alley.

"We don't have time for this," Annabeth said. "We'll talk in the taxi."

"A taxi all the way to camp?" I said. "You know how much money-"

"Trust me."

I hesitated. "What about Tyson?"

I imagined escorting my giant friend into Camp Half-Blood. If he freaked out on a regular playground with regular bullies, how would he act at a training camp for demigods? On the other hand, the cops would be looking for us.

"We can't just leave him," I decided. "He'll be in trouble, too."

"Yeah." Annabeth looked grim. "We definitely need to take him. Now come on."

I didn't like the way she said that, as if Tyson were a big disease we needed to get to the hospital, but I followed her down the alley. Together the three of us sneaked through the side streets of downtown while a huge column of smoke billowed up behind us from my school gymnasium.

"Wow you demolished the school...cool!" Leo said.

Everyone rolled their eyes.

"It's not cool when the school can press charges." Annabeth sadi.

"Here" Annabeth stopped us on the corner of Thomas and Trimble. She fished around in her backpack. "I hope I have one left."

She looked even worse than I'd realized at first. Her chin was cut. Twigs and grass were tangled in her ponytail, as if she'd slept several nights in the open. The slashes on the hems of her jeans looked suspiciously like claw marks.

"What are you looking for?" I asked.

All around us, sirens wailed. I figured it wouldn't be long before more cops cruised by, looking for juvenile delinquent gym-bombers. No doubt Matt Sloan had given them a statement by now. He'd probably twisted the story around so that Tyson and I were the bloodthirsty cannibals.

Everyone laughed.

"I can totally see that." Nico said.

"Of course you would say that." Thalia said.

Nico glared at her while she just rolled her eyes. Nico held her hand and Thalia leaned into his shoulder.

"Found one. Thank the gods." Annabeth pulled out a gold coin that I recognized as a drachma, the currency of Mount Olympus. It had Zeus's likeness stamped on one side and the Empire State Building on the other.

"Annabeth," I said, "New York taxi drivers won't take that."

"Stêthi," she shouted in Ancient Greek. "Ô hárma diabolês!"

As usual, the moment she spoke in the language of Olympus, I somehow understood it. She'd said: Stop, Chariot of Damnation!

"That doesn't sound pleasant." Katie said leaning into Travis.

"It wasn't."Percy said.

Annabeth nodded. Not one of her best ideas.

"But is got us to camp quickly so," Annabeth said.

That didn't exactly make me feel real excited about whatever her plan was.

She threw her coin into the street, but instead of clattering on the asphalt, the drachma sank right through and disappeared.

For a moment, nothing happened.

Then, just where the coin had fallen, the asphalt darkened. It melted into a rectangular pool about the size of a parking space-bubbling red liquid like blood. Then a car erupted from the ooze.

"Ew"

It was a taxi, all right, but unlike every other taxi in New York, it wasn't yellow. It was smoky gray. I mean it looked like it was woven out of smoke, like you could walk right through it. There were words printed on the door-something like GYAR SSIRES-but my dyslexia made it hard for me to decipher what it said.

"The gray sisters."Athena said.

The passenger window rolled down, and an old woman stuck her head out. She had a mop of grizzled hair covering her eyes, and she spoke in a weird mumbling way, like she'd just had a shot of Novocain. "Passage? Passage?"

"Three to Camp Half-Blood," Annabeth said. She opened the cab's back door and waved at me to get in, like this was all completely normal.

"Ach!" the old woman screeched. "We don't take his kind!"

She pointed a bony finger at Tyson.

What was it? Pick-on-Big-and-Ugly-Kids Day?

"Extra pay," Annabeth promised. "Three more drachma on arrival."

"Done!" the woman screamed.

Reluctantly I got in the cab. Tyson squeezed in the middle. Annabeth crawled in last.

The interior was also smoky gray, but it felt solid enough. The seat was cracked and lumpy-no different than most taxis. There was no Plexiglas screen separating us from the old lady driving … Wait a minute. There wasn't just one old lady. There were three, all crammed in the front seat, each with stringy hair covering her eyes, bony hands, and a charcoal-colored sackcloth dress.

The one driving said, "Long Island! Out-of-metro fare bonus! Ha!"

She floored the accelerator, and my head slammed against the backrest. A prerecorded voice came on over the speaker: Hi, this is Ganymede, cup-bearer to Zeus, and when I'm out buying wine for the Lord of the Skies, I always buckle up!

I looked down and found a large black chain instead of a seat belt. I decided I wasn't that desperate … yet.

"Yet?"Leo asked.

"You'll see." was Percy's answer.

The cab sped around the corner of West Broadway, and the gray lady sitting in the middle screeched, "Look out! Go left!"

"Well, if you'd give me the eye, Tempest, I could see that!" the driver complained.

Wait a minute. Give her the eye?

I didn't have time to ask questions because the driver swerved to avoid an oncoming delivery truck, ran over the curb with a jaw-rattling thump, and flew into the next block.

"Oh."

"Wasp!" the third lady said to the driver. "Give me the girl's coin! I want to bite it."

"You bit it last time, Anger!" said the driver, whose name must've been Wasp. "It's my turn!"

"Is not!" yelled the one called Anger.

The middle one, Tempest, screamed, "Red light!"

"Brake!" yelled Anger.

Instead, Wasp floored the accelerator and rode up on the curb, screeching around another corner, and knocking over a newspaper box. She left my stomach somewhere back on Broome Street.

"Excuse me," I said. "But … can you see?"

"No!" screamed Wasp from behind the wheel.

"No!" screamed Tempest from the middle.

"Of course!" screamed Anger by the shotgun window.

I looked at Annabeth. "They're blind?"

"Not completely," Annabeth said. "They have an eye."

"One eye?"

"Yeah."

"Each?"

"No. One eye total."

Next to me, Tyson groaned and grabbed the seat. "Not feeling so good."

"Oh, man," I said, because I'd seen Tyson get carsick on school field trips and it was not something you wanted to be within fifty feet of. "Hang in there, big guy. Anybody got a garbage bag or something?"

"A garbage bag?"Chris asked.

"Seriously Annabeth, next time, just let me water vapor travel. It's faster, and won't make you sick." Percy said.

The three gray ladies were too busy squabbling to pay me any attention. I looked over at Annabeth, who was hanging on for dear life, and I gave her a why-did-you-do-this-to-me look.

"Hey," she said, "Gray Sisters Taxi is the fastest way to camp."

"Then why didn't you take it from Virginia?"

"That's outside their service area," she said, like that should be obvious. "They only serve Greater New York and surrounding communities."

"We've had famous people in this cab!" Anger exclaimed. "Jason! You remember him?"

"Hey Jason your mentioned." Leo said.

"It not me it's the other Jason." Jason said.

"Oh"

"Don't remind me!" Wasp wailed. "And we didn't have a cab back then, you old bat. That was three thousand years ago!"

"Give me the tooth!" Anger tried to grab at Wasp's mouth, but Wasp swatted her hand away.

"Only if Tempest gives me the eye!"

"No!" Tempest screeched. "You had it yesterday!"

"But I'm driving, you old hag!"

"Excuses! Turn! That was your turn!"

Wasp swerved hard onto Delancey Street, squishing me between Tyson and the door. She punched the gas and we shot up the Williamsburg Bridge at seventy miles an hour.

The three sisters were fighting for real now, slapping each other as Anger tried to grab at Wasp's face and Wasp tried to grab at Tempest's. With their hair flying and their mouths open, screaming at each other, I realized that none of the sisters had any teeth except for Wasp, who had one mossy yellow incisor. Instead of eyes, they just had closed, sunken eyelids, except for Anger, who had one bloodshot green eye that stared at everything hungrily, as if it couldn't get enough of anything it saw.

Finally Anger, who had the advantage of sight, managed to yank the tooth out of her sister Wasp's mouth. This made Wasp so mad she swerved toward the edge of the Williamsburg Bridge, yelling, "'Ivit back! 'Ivit back!"

Tyson groaned and clutched his stomach.

"Uh, if anybody's interested," I said, "we're going to die!"

Everyone laughed at Percy's comment. Thalia and Nico noticed that Percy and Annabeth were missing so they decided to go look for them.

"Don't worry," Annabeth told me, sounding pretty worried. "The Gray Sisters know what they're doing. They're really very wise."

This coming from the daughter of Athena, but I wasn't exactly reassured. We were skimming along the edge of a bridge a hundred and thirty feet above the East River.

"What does that mean?"Athena asked. Nobody answered.

"Yes, wise!" Anger grinned in the rearview mirror, showing off her newly acquired tooth. "We know things!"

"Every street in Manhattan!" Wasp bragged, still hitting her sister. "The capital of Nepal!"

"The location you seek!" Tempest added.

Immediately her sisters pummeled her from either side, screaming, "Be quiet! Be quiet! He didn't even ask yet!"

"What?" I said. "What location? I'm not seeking any-"

"Nothing!" Tempest said. **"You're** right, boy. It's nothing!"

"Tell me."

"No!" they all screamed.

"The last time we told, it was horrible!" Tempest said.

"Eye tossed in a lake!" Anger agreed.

"Years to find it again!" Wasp moaned. "And speaking of that-give it back!"

"How did they get it back? "Leo asked.

Everyone shrugged.

"No!" yelled Anger.

"Eye!" Wasp yelled. "Gimme!"

She whacked her sister Anger on the back. There was a sickening pop and something flew out of Anger's face. Anger fumbled for it, trying to catch it, but she only managed to bat it with the back of her hand. The slimy green orb sailed over her shoulder, into the backseat, and straight into my lap.

"Ewwwwwww" was heard by everyone except Ares and Clarisse.

I jumped so hard, my head hit the ceiling and the eyeball rolled away.

"Wimp" Ares said.

"I can't see!" all three sisters yelled.

"Give me the eye!" Wasp wailed.

"Give her the eye!" Annabeth screamed.

"I don't have it!" I said.

"There, by your foot," Annabeth said. "Don't step on it! Get it!"

"I'm not picking that up!"

The taxi slammed against the guardrail and skidded along with a horrible grinding noise. The whole car shuddered, billowing gray smoke as if it were about to dissolve from the strain.

"Going to be sick!" Tyson warned.

"Annabeth," I yelled, "let Tyson use your backpack!"

"Are you crazy? Get the eye!"

Wasp yanked the wheel, and the taxi swerved away from the rail. We hurtled down the bridge toward Brooklyn, going faster than any human taxi. The Gray Sisters screeched and pummeled each other and cried out for their eye.

At last I steeled my nerves. I ripped off a chunk of my tie-dyed T-shirt, which was already falling apart from all the burn marks, and used it to pick the eyeball off the floor.

"Nice boy!" Anger cried, as if she somehow knew I had her missing peeper. "Give it back!"

"Not until you explain," I told her. "What were you talking about, the location I seek?"

"No time!" Tempest cried. "Accelerating!"

I looked out the window. Sure enough, trees and cars and whole neighborhoods were now zipping by in a gray blur. We were already out of Brooklyn, heading through the middle of Long Island.

"Percy," Annabeth warned, "they can't find our destination without the eye. We'll just keep accelerating until we break into a million pieces."

"First they have to tell me," I said. "Or I'll open the window and throw the eye into oncoming traffic."

"No!" the Gray Sisters wailed. "Too dangerous!"

"I'm rolling down the window."

"Wait!" the Gray Sisters screamed. "30, 31, 75, 12!"

"Those are coordinates." Athena and Poseidon said at the same time.

They belted it out like a quarterback calling a play.

"What do you mean?" I said. "That makes no sense!"

"30, 31, 75, 12!" Anger wailed. "That's all we can tell you. Now give us the eye! Almost to camp!"

We were off the highway now, zipping through the countryside of northern Long Island. I could see Half-Blood Hill ahead of us, with its giant pine tree at the crest-Thalia's tree, which contained the life force or a fallen hero.

"Percy!" Annabeth said more urgently. "Give them the eye now!"

I decided not to argue. I threw the eye into Wasp's lap.

"SUCCESS!" Thalia and Nico yelled. Percy and Annabeth came in with blue and gray paint all over them.

"My dear cousins, you shouldn't have done that." Percy said. He jumped on top of Thalia and Nico. Annabeth joined him and they got Thalia and Nico covered in paint.

The old lady snatched it up, pushed it into her eye socket like somebody putting in a contact lens, and blinked. "Whoa!"

She slammed on the brakes. The taxi spun four or five times in a cloud of smoke and squealed to a halt in the middle of the farm road at the base of Half-Blood Hill.

Tyson let loose a huge belch. "Better now."

"All right," I told the Gray Sisters. "Now tell me what those numbers mean."

"No time!" Annabeth opened her door. "We have to get out now."

I was about to ask why, when I looked up at Half-Blood Hill and understood.

At the crest of the hill was a group of campers. And they were under attack.

Percy winced as he remembered what happened.

"Let's clean up and take a break. We'll meet back her in two hours." Athena said.


	4. Important AN please read

Hey guys! I'm really sorry I haven't updated and I won't be updating probably till like July because I'm moving and I won't really have access to the internet. I'm really sorry. Please don't be mad at me. I love you guys. :)

Also another announcement:

I am writing a collab story with lightning and death. When I post the first chapter I hope you guys will check it out when I post it. I promise that as soon as I can, I will update. Wish me luck! If you guys have any questions, review. Don't forget I love you guys!


	5. Chapter 5

_Disclaimer:_

Me: I own Percy Jackson. Mwahahaha!

Percy: No you don't.

Me: But I do. And I can explain how. With my username. Percabethlvr- Well obviously Annabeth would love Percabeth. knowsall- Annabeth does know all. Therefore, making me Annabeth and everybody knows that Annabeth owns you so HA!

Percy: But you don't own the books.

Me: I know I don't own the books. The books belong to Rick Riordan.

Percy: So you DON'T own me.

Me: I do because I'm Annabeth.

Percy: B-but. Just get on with the chapter.

Me: Here's the chapter guys! Enjoy‼‼‼‼

"Tyson plays with fire," Poseidon read.

Mythologically speaking, if there's anything I hate worse than trios of old ladies, it's bulls. Last summer, I fought the Minotaur on top of Half-Blood Hill. This time what I saw up there was even worse: two bulls. And not just regular bulls-bronze ones the size of elephants. And even that wasn't bad enough. Naturally they had to breathe fire, too.

"Why is it naturally?" Nico asked.

"Because it's Percy Death Breath." Thalia responded.

"Don't call me Death Breath Pinecone Face."

"I can call you whatever I want and don't YOU call me Pinecone Face." Thalia said threateningly.

"Or what. What are you gonna do about it?" Nico taunted.

"I will electrocute you till you fry and then feed you to Mrs. O'Leary."

"Guys. Shut up." Percy said. The rest were just staring at Thalia and Nico.

"MAKE ME KELP HEAD‼" Thalia and Nico screamed. Percy stared and then got up and walked over to them. Annabeth meanwhile was smirking knowing what Percy was going to do. He gave both of them his deluxe I'll-kill-you-right-here-in-front-of-all-the-gods- and-other-people while playing with Riptide in its pen form. Thalia and Nico shrank back and everybody stared at Percy in amazement.

As soon as we exited the taxi, the Gray Sisters peeled out, heading back to New York, where life was safer. They didn't even wait for their extra three-drachma payment.

"Sweet." Hermes said.

They just left us on the side of the road, Annabeth with nothing but her backpack and knife, Tyson and me still in our burned-up tie-dyed gym clothes.

"Oh, man," said Annabeth, looking at the battle raging on the hill.

What worried me most weren't the bulls themselves. Or the ten heroes in full battle armor who were getting their bronze-plated booties whooped. What worried me was that the bulls were ranging all over the hill, even around the back side of the pine tree. That shouldn't have been possible. The camp's magic boundaries didn't allow monsters to cross past Thalia's tree. But the metal bulls were doing it anyway.

"That's not god." Apollo said.

Annabeth looked down knowing what had happened and how Luke had poisoned Thalia after he promised they were a family and he would never hurt them. Percy, sensing Annabeth's sadness hugged her closer.

One of the heroes shouted, "Border patrol, to me!" A girl's voice-gruff and familiar.

Everyone glanced at Clarisse.

'Yeah it's me. "Clarisse said.

Border patrol? I thought. The camp didn't have a border patrol.

"It's Clarisse," Annabeth said. "Come on, we have to help her."

Normally, rushing to Clarisse's aid would not have been high on my "to do" list. She was one of the biggest bullies at camp. The first time we'd met she tried to introduce my head to a toilet. She was also a daughter of Ares, and I'd had a very serious disagreement with her father last summer, so now the god of war and all his children basically hated my guts.

"Got that right." Clarisse growled.

Percy rolled his eyes.

Still, she was in trouble. Her fellow warriors were scattering, running in panic as the bulls charged. The grass was burning in huge swathes around the pine tree. One hero screamed and waved his arms as he ran in circles, the horsehair plume on his helmet blazing like a fiery Mohawk. Clarisse's own armor was charred. She was fighting with a broken spear shaft, the other end embedded uselessly in the metal joint of one bull's shoulder.

I uncapped my ballpoint pen. It shimmered, growing longer and heavier until I held the bronze sword Anaklusmos in my hands. "Tyson, stay here. I don't want you taking any more chances."

"No!" Annabeth said. "We need him."

I stared at her. "He's mortal. He got lucky with the dodge balls but he can't-"

"Percy, do you know what those are up there? The Colchis bulls, made by Hephaestus himself. We can't fight them without Medea's Sunscreen SPF 50,000. We'll get burned to a crisp."

"Medea's what?"

Annabeth rummaged through her backpack and cursed. "I had a jar of tropical coconut scent sitting on my night-stand at home. Why didn't I bring it?"

"Yeah Annabeth why didn't you bring it?" Connor said.

Annabeth smacked him.

"Because I didn't think that there would be two fire breathing bulls invading camp. Did you?" Connor stayed quiet.

I'd learned a long time ago not to question Annabeth too much. It just made me more confused. "Look, I don't know what you're talking about, but I'm not going to let Tyson get fried."

"Percy-"

"Tyson, stay back." I raised my sword. "I'm going in."

Tyson tried to protest, but I was already running up the hill toward Clarisse, who was yelling at her patrol, trying to get them into phalanx formation. It was a good idea. The few who were listening lined up shoulder-to-shoulder, locking their shields to form an ox-hide-and-bronze wall, their spears bristling over the top like porcupine quills.

Unfortunately, Clarisse could only muster six campers. The other four were still running around with their helmets on fire. Annabeth ran toward them, trying to help. She taunted one of the bulls into chasing her, then turned invisible, completely confusing the monster. The other bull charged Clarisse's line.

I was halfway up the hill-not close enough to help. Clarisse hadn't even seen me yet.

The bull moved deadly fast for something so big. Its metal hide gleamed in the sun. It had fist-sized rubies for eyes, and horns of polished silver. When it opened its hinged mouth, a column of white-hot flame blasted out.

"I can play with fire too." Leo said lighting his hand on fire.

"Leo, if you burn your eyebrows off again, don't come to the Aphrodite cabin." Piper warned.

"Hold the line!" Clarisse ordered her warriors.

Whatever else you could say about Clarisse, she was brave. She was a big girl with cruel eyes like her father's. She looked like she was born to wear Greek battle armor, but I didn't see how even she could stand against that bull's charge.

Unfortunately, at that moment, the other bull lost interest in finding Annabeth. It turned, wheeling around behind Clarisse on her unprotected side.

"Behind you!" I yelled. "Look out!"

I shouldn't have said anything, because all I did was startle her. Bull Number One crashed into her shield, and the phalanx broke. Clarisse went flying backward and landed in a smoldering patch of grass. The bull charged past her, but not before blasting the other heroes with its fiery breath. Their shields melted right off their arms. They dropped their weapons and ran as Bull Number Two closed in on Clarisse for the kill.

I lunged forward and grabbed Clarisse by the straps of her armor. I dragged her out of the way just as Bull Number Two freight-trained past. I gave it a good swipe with Riptide and cut a huge gash in its flank, but the monster just creaked and groaned and kept on going.

It hadn't touched me, but I could feel the heat of its metal skin. Its body temperature could've microwaved a frozen burrito.

"Haha. Burritos are awesome projectiles." Grover, Thalia, and Percy started laughing.

"Let me go!" Clarisse pummeled my hand. "Percy, curse you!"

"Curse you? He just saved you." Piper said.

Clarisse shrugged uncaring.

I dropped her in a heap next to the pine tree and turned to face the bulls. We were on the inside slope of the hill now, the valley of Camp Half-Blood directly below us-the cabins, the training facilities, the Big House-all of it at risk if these bulls got past us.

Annabeth shouted orders to the other heroes, telling them to spread out and keep the bulls distracted.

Bull Number One ran a wide arc, making its way back toward me. As it passed the middle of the hill, where the invisible boundary line should've kept it out, it slowed down a little, as if it were struggling against a strong wind; but then it broke through and kept coming. Bull Number Two turned to face me, fire sputtering from the gash I'd cut in its side. I couldn't tell if it felt any pain, but its ruby eyes seemed to glare at me like I'd just made things personal.

I couldn't fight both bulls at the same time. I'd have to take down Bull Number Two first, cut its head off before Bull Number One charged back into range. My arms already felt tired. I realized how long it had been since I'd worked out with Riptide, how out of practice I was.

"That's not good." Travis said.

"If Percy can't sword fight, we are DOOMED‼‼‼‼" Connor finished.

I lunged but Bull Number Two blew flames at me. I rolled aside as the air turned to pure heat. All the oxygen was sucked out of my lungs. My foot caught on something-a tree root, maybe-and pain shot up my ankle. Still, I managed to slash with my sword and lop off part of the monster's snout. It galloped away, wild and disoriented. But before I could feel too good about that, I tried to stand, and my left leg buckled underneath me. My ankle was sprained, maybe broken.

Poseidon looked like he was going to faint.

Bull Number One charged straight toward me. No way could I crawl out of its path.

Annabeth shouted: "Tyson, help him!"

Somewhere near, toward the crest of the hill, Tyson wailed, "Can't-get-through!"

"I, Annabeth Chase, give you permission to enter camp!"

Thunder shook the hillside. Suddenly Tyson was there, barreling toward me, yelling: "Percy needs help!"

Before I could tell him no, he dove between me and the bull just as it unleashed a nuclear firestorm.

"Tyson!" I yelled.

The blast swirled around him like a red tornado. I could only see the black silhouette of his body. I knew with horrible certainty that my friend had just been turned into a column of ashes.

But when the fire died, Tyson was still standing there, completely unharmed. Not even his grungy clothes were scorched. The bull must've been as surprised as I was, because before it could unleash a second blast, Tyson balled his fists and slammed them into the bull's face. "BAD COW!"

Everyone laughed.

"Tha's Tyson for ya." Connor said.

His fists made a crater where the bronze bull's snout used to be. Two small columns of flame shot out of its ears. Tyson hit it again, and the bronze crumpled under his hands like aluminum foil. The bull's face now looked like a sock puppet pulled inside out.

"Down!" Tyson yelled.

The bull staggered and fell on its back. Its legs moved feebly in the air, steam coming out of its ruined head in odd places.

Annabeth ran over to check on me.

"Of course she did." Nico said.

"Shut up." Annabeth said.

Annabeth and Percy were beet red.

My ankle felt like it was filled with acid, but she gave me some Olympian nectar to drink from her canteen, and I immediately started to feel better. There was a burning smell that I later learned was me. The hair on my arms had been completely singed off.

"The other bull?" I asked.

Annabeth pointed down the hill. Clarisse had taken care of Bad Cow Number Two. She'd impaled it through the back leg with a celestial bronze spear. Now, with its snout half gone and a huge gash in its side, it was trying to run in slow motion, going in circles like some kind of merry-go-round animal.

Everyone laughed.

Clarisse pulled off her helmet and marched toward us. A strand of her stringy brown hair was smoldering, but she didn't seem to notice. "You-ruin-everything!" she yelled at me. "I had it under control!"

I was too stunned to answer. Annabeth grumbled, "Good to see you too, Clarisse."

"Argh!" Clarisse screamed. "Don't ever, EVER try saving me again!"

"Good thing he didn't do that, huh, Clarisse." Annabeth said.

"Yeah. He saved Nobody." Annabeth, Clarisse, and Percy laughed now.

"Clarisse," Annabeth said, "you've got wounded campers."

That sobered her up. Even Clarisse cared about the soldiers under her command.

"I'll be back," she growled, then trudged off to assess the damage.

I stared at Tyson. "You didn't die."

Tyson looked down like he was embarrassed. "I am sorry. Came to help. Disobeyed you."

"My fault," Annabeth said. "I had no choice. I had to let Tyson cross the boundary line to save you. Otherwise, you would've died."

"Let him cross the boundary line?'" I asked. "But-"

"Percy," she said, "have you ever looked at Tyson closely? I mean … in the face. Ignore the Mist, and really look at him."

The Mist makes humans see only what their brains can process … I knew it could fool demigods too, but…

I looked Tyson in the face. It wasn't easy. I'd always had trouble looking directly at him, though I'd never quite understood why. I'd thought it was just because he always had peanut butter in his crooked teeth. I forced myself to focus at his big lumpy nose, then a little higher at his eyes.

No, not eyes.

One eye. One large, calf-brown eye, right in the middle of his forehead, with thick lashes and big tears trickling down his cheeks on either side.

"Tyson," I stammered. "You're a …"

"Cyclops," Annabeth offered. "A baby, by the looks of him. Probably why he couldn't get past the boundary line as easily as the bulls. Tyson's one of the homeless orphans."

"One of the what?"

"They're in almost all the big cities," Annabeth said distastefully. "They're … mistakes, Percy. Children of nature spirits and gods … Well, one god in particular, usually … and they don't always come out right. No one wants them. They get tossed aside. They grow up wild on the streets. I don't know how this one found you, but he obviously likes you. We should take him to Chiron, let him decide what to do."

"But the fire. How-"

"He's a Cyclops." Annabeth paused, as if she were remembering something unpleasant. "They work the forges of the gods. They have to be immune to fire. That's what I was trying to tell you."

I was completely shocked. How had I never realized what Tyson was?

"Slow." Thalia whispered to Nico.

Nico snickered.

"Why don't I make fun of you two lovebirds. Huh?" Percy said mockingly. Thalia punched Percy and Nico was red.

But I didn't have much time to think about it just then. The whole side of the hill was burning. Wounded heroes needed attention. And there were still two banged-up bronze bulls to dispose of, which I didn't figure would fit in our normal recycling bins.

Clarisse came back over and wiped the soot off her forehead. "Jackson, if you can stand, get up. We need to carry the wounded back to the Big House, let Tantalus know what's happened."

"Tantalus?" I asked.

"The activities director," Clarisse said impatiently.

"Chiron is the activities director. And where's Argus? He's head of security. He should be here."

Clarisse made a sour face. "Argus got fired. You two have been gone too long. Things are changing."

"But Chiron … He's trained kids to fight monsters for over three thousand years. He can't just be gone. What happened?"

"That happened," Clarisse snapped.

She pointed to Thalia's tree.

Every camper knew the story behind the tree. Six years ago, Grover, Annabeth, and two other demigods named Thalia and Luke had come to Camp Half-Blood chased by an army of monsters. When they got cornered on top of this hill, Thalia, a daughter of Zeus, had made her last stand here to give her friends time to reach safety. As she was dying, her father, Zeus, took pity on her and changed her into a pine tree. Her spirit had reinforced the magic borders of the camp, protecting it from monsters. The pine had been here ever since, strong and healthy.

But now, its needles were yellow. A huge pile of dead ones littered the base of the tree. In the center of the trunk, three feet from the ground, was a puncture mark the size of a bullet hole, oozing green sap.

A sliver of ice ran through my chest. Now I understood why the camp was in danger. The magical borders were failing because Thalia's tree was dying.

Someone had poisoned it.

Thalia got a sad look in her face and looked down. Annabeth did the same. Nico hugged Thalia and Percy brought up Annabeth's chin and kissed it. The gods watched the four demigods with a sad look in their eyes and saw how hard and dangerous it actually was to be a demigod.

Super awesome line breaker

A/N

_Hey guys! I'm back and alive. Here is the chapter I promised you guys. Shout out to everybody‼‼ Yeah. That's all I can think of saying. Don't forget to Review‼‼ Peace out! Oh and please read my disclaimer 'cuz I want to know what you guys think of it. I made it up._

_PLKA Out._


	6. The Future

Hey guys! Um some of you have asked where the bold went, and to tell you the truth, I don't know what happened. I'm trying to make sure that it's bold. It's bold when I type it on Word. I don't know what happened. If anything, it will be underlined and hopefully that won't disappear too. Also, somebody reported me for MST or whatever that is. So if this story suddenly disappears, don't worry. I'll just repost it. Yeah. Also, you guys can follow me on Tumblr: theperksof-beingabooklover. If you follow me on Tumblr, shoot me an ask on any of my stories, and tell me your username on fanfiction and I will give you a shout out. Also, you guys need to check out Joe Brooks. He is perfection. I swear. Yeah. That's all I have to say for now. I'll probably have more at the end. Maybe. Bye and enjoy the chapter.

Disclaimer: If I owned PJO and HoO, don't you think Thalico would be together by now and Percabeth wouldn't be in Tartarus?

**This is a line breaker that loves all my reviewers**

Nobody's POV

Leo was about to open up to the next chapter, when Athena said quietly,

"I think we should take a break and meet back up in half an hour."

Everybody silently nodded and looked at the four people who were quiet and had silent tears running down their faces. Yes, even Nico because he looked at Percy and Annabeth and knew that they had a great deal of suffering very soon because the fates had told him what was going to happen, because Nico was an even bigger part of the prophecy than anyone expected. He got up and grabbed Thalia's hand and walked to one of his favorite places on Olympus. It was a big garden where nobody could find him. It had been abandoned, like Nico, so it was untamed but yet at the same time, it was young and easily manipulated, like Nico. But yet, at the same time, it was broken in a way that beauty should never be broken. Thalia beckoned for Percy and Annabeth to come and the followed behind Nico and Thalia. Nico sat down in the middle of the garden, and Thalia sat to the left and laid her head on his chest. Percy sat to his right and threw an arm around his cousin's shoulder. Annabeth sat in Percy's lap and hugged Percy. Percy looked out on the garden, and saw how similar it was to Nico.

"I don't want to lose you guys." Nico whispered quietly.

"Why would you lose us?" Percy asked. He looked into his cousin's eyes when he asked him, and he saw a blackness that showed torment, abandonment, and sorrow.

"A week before we appeared here, the fates showed me a part of the future. And it wasn't pretty. They told me that when the time comes, a great hero would have to do the unspeakable."

Nico said looking straight ahead. He waved his hand, and an Iris message appeared and showed a series of events. It showed Nico in a jar and barely surviving. And then it showed one of the saddest things the four friends would ever see. It showed Percy hanging onto a ledge and Annabeth onto his other hand. Below them, there was darkness, and the four knew it was Tartarus. Percy said he would meet Nico at the other side. And then Percy let go, and together, Percy and Annabeth fell into Tartarus holding hands while Nico kicked a stone in frustration and Hazel cried into Frank's shoulder. Leo was silent and in shock. Piper was silently crying into Jason's shoulder and Jason was trying his hardest to use the wind to bring them back up. All that came up was silk from Arachne. Nico walked back to the ladder and the others followed in pursuit. And then the Iris message disappeared. Percy was trying his hardest not to break down because he wanted to be strong for Annabeth, who was crying. Thalia got up and hugged Percy and Annabeth like it was the last thing she could do. Nico wrapped his arms around the three, and all three just sat down in the abandoned garden. But there was something else that the garden showed, because small little flowers were appearing every day. And those flowers showed hope. Hope that nobody would die. Hope that Percy and Annabeth would survive.

Time skip to half an hour later

Leo picked the book up again.

**I get a new cabin mate** Leo read.

Nobody noticed that Percy, Annabeth, Thalia, and Nico were missing.

Line breaker

So that's the end of the chapter. I know it was a sad chapter. That's the point. Tell me what you think about the garden scene. And the made up scene with five of the seven and Nico. Also tell me how the title of the next chapter looks. Is it bold, underlined, or both. Also, go check my new story that I am writing with Lighting~AND`Death. It's on my account. The first chapter is up. Go check that out and review for it and don't forget to review this chapter.


	7. newcomers

Hey guys! Yeah, I can't think of anything to say so, on with the story‼‼‼ Wait! Please read the AN at the end of the chapter. There is something that will be a treat for you guys.

Disclaimer: PJO and HoO belong to Rick Riordan, not a 13 year old girl.

_Super awesome line breaker that is blowing your mind away_

**I get a new cabin mate** Leo read.

**Ever come home and found your room messed up? Like some helpful person (hi, Mom) has tried to "clean" it, and suddenly you can't find anything?**

"I hate it when Athena does that. She'll just waltz in and "clean" our rooms, and then we can't find anything." grumbled Hermes.

"Well it's not my fault that you couldn't find Hades package, and if you'd just cleaned your room, you would have saw it was on your bed." Athena said.

**And even if nothing is missing, you get that creepy feeling like somebody's been looking through your private stuff and dusting everything with lemon furniture polish?**

"According to Percy, Annabeth did that once. Right Perce?" Frank said turning to where Percy should be, but all that was there was air.

"Guys, where's Percy, Annabeth, Thalia, and Nico?" Leo asked seeing that the four were missing. Everybody got up and split up to look for the four friends. Jason flew through Olympus along with Frank scouring the grounds for them. Piper, Leo, and Hazel looked for them in the temples. And then eventually, Jason and Frank found the four friends in an abandoned garden sleeping. Annabeth had her head on Percy's chest and her curls were splayed out. Percy had his arms around her, like he was protecting her from something. Thalia was curled into Nico's side, and Nico had his arms around her waist. Piper, Jason, Leo, Frank, and Hazel stared at the four friends. Percy looked like he was twelve again and hadn't seen so many deaths. Annabeth looked like she hadn't lost her boyfriend for a few months. Thalia looked like she didn't lose one of the members of her previous family (Annabeth, Luke, and Thalia) and like she wouldn't lose Percy or Annabeth. And Nico looked like he did when Percy and Thalia first met him, he looked innocent and like he didn't lose Bianca and wouldn't lose Percy or Annabeth. Piper, Leo, Jason, Frank, and Hazel decided to leave them be and just continue with the reading. They walked back to the throne room, and Piper said,

"Leave them be." And just when Leo picked up the book, there was a flash and twelve people fell out of the ceiling.

"Shane, stop annoying your sister!" A woman who had gray eyes said.

"Alec! Stop shocking Ally. You know she'll just punch you and she won't get grounded this time because you were shocking her!" A woman screamed at a boy who had black hair and blue eyes.

"WHO ARE YOU PEOPLE AND WHY DO YOU KEEP FALLING FROM THE CEILING?!" Zeus screamed just as Percy, Nico, Annabeth, and Thalia walked in. They stopped dead in their tracks and stared at the newcomers.

"I think we have more guests. Would you please introduce yourselves?" Hestia said.

"Of course Lady Hestia." A green eyed boy said.

"Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon." At this, sixteen year old Percy looked up and said,

"Um, I'm Percy."

"No I'm Percy."

"No, I'm Percy."

"I don't think your Percy."

"I think I am."

"Yeah right. Like you could be as-"

"SHUT UP SEAWEED BRAIN‼" Annabeth and a gray eyed woman said. Annabeth and the woman stared at each, calculating. At the same time, both asked each other,

"What year is it?"

"2013(I don't know when HoO takes place)" Annabeth said.

"2032." And so the introductions continued for the future futures, until it reached four kids.

"Shane Luke Jackson, son of Percy Annabeth Jackson, age 14, twin to that." He said, pointing to a girl. Shane had raven black hair, but gray eyes.

"Lucy Jackson, daughter of Percy and Annabeth Jackson, age 14. And like Shane said, I'm his twin." She had Annabeth's hair, but her eyes were sea green.

"Ally Grace di Angelo, daughter of Thalia and Nico di Angelo, age 14, girlfriend to Shane." She said while glaring at Shane because he didn't say he was dating her. Shane cowered and hid behind his sister. Which was hard, because he was taller than her. Ally had black hair that went down to her back and black eyes, like her father.

" Alexander di Angelo, son of Thalia and Nico di Angelo, age 13. Also, I prefer to be called Alec." Alec was a spitting image of Nico, except he had blue eyes, like his mother. The Giant War futures introduced themselves, and explained what was happening. Thalia and Nico, the older ones, looked at each other and said at the same time,

"BLACKMAIL‼‼‼‼‼"

"Wait. I think we should call the futures that are teens something different. Like their nickname." Hestia suggested. Everybody agreed.

"Can I continue reading now?" Leo asked. Everybody nodded.

_Super awesome line breaker_

So that was the chapter. It's not really a reading chapter. But yeah. I was originally going to post this on like Thursday, but I decided to post it today.

**IMPORTANT‼‼ READ‼‼‼‼‼‼**

**Surprise time: The 100 reviewer will get a sneak peek at a new story that I am writing. They will also get a shout out.**

**But I also have another surprise. The new story that I am writing, has a band. And I need a cool name for the band. Just submit the band name in a review or PM it to me. That person will also get a sneak peek and the honor of having the name they created in the story. The current band name is The Big Three. That's that. Bye Bye‼‼**


	8. Very Important AN Please read it

Hey guys so this is just an Author's Note, but it is very important. There are some things I need to tell you about.

I will be starting school on the third of September. And since school is coming up, there is a change with the updating. There is a poll on my profile that you guys need to look out and vote in. There are as of right now two choices for my updating. One is were I update every two weeks about but the chapters will be of half the reading chapter. The second choice is me updating every three or four weeks. The chapters are the full reading chapter.

It has been pretty confusing as to who is reading and not. SO I made a list.

16 yr olds:

Percy- Seaweed Brain/ Kelp Head/ Perce

Annabeth- Wise Girl/Annie

Thalia- Pine Cone Face/ Thals

Nico- Death Breath/ Nics

Piper- Beauty Queen/Pipes

Jason- Sparky/ Jace

Leo- Repair Boy/ Pyro

Hazel- Younger Hazel

Frank- Younger Frank/ Franky

35 yr olds:

**Percy**

**Annabeth**

**Thalia**

**Nico**

**Piper**

**Jason**

**Hazel**

**Frank**

Percy and Annabeth have twins- Lucy and William(Will) Both are 14. Thalia and Nico have a girl named Zoe and she is dating Will. Piper and Jason have a son name Leo. Hazel and Frank have a son named Samuel(Sammy). Also, somebody that is in the 16 yr olds group had died in my version of the Giant War. Can you guess who?

And finally, I am thinking of a new story that I want to write. It's AU and is sorta like the Disney Channel Original movie, Lemonade Mouth. Here's the summary

Summary: Five people who never thought that they would be in a band. Specifically a band with each other. And all because one lucky morning they all got detention. Who would have thought that it be all because of detention.

So that's the summary and I'm looking for a Beta for it. If you are interested in being my Beta, please PM me. Also, add me into your DocX connections because I will send you the prologue and you can edit it, give me advice, what ever. If I get more than one person wanting to be my Beta, I will decide who I prefer. So yeah. That's it. Bye for now.


	9. New Brother

Hey guys! Sorry for the long wait for the update. So in a couple of days, the poll on my profile will end and that will be how I will update during the school year. I will be starting school on the 3rd of September. Um, oh yeah! SOPA's making a come back sadly, so guys, we need to stick together and fight for Fanfiction! And I just want to say something to a certain reviewer who decided that he can dictate if I'm stupid or not.

So, **Mr. Fucktastic**, you believe that I am inbred and a retard. I can definitely assure you, I am not. And just to let you know, many people actually enjoy reading stories where the characters read the books, because it can be very funny. And you obviously only read the eighth chapter, which was an Author's Note. And how am I being a troll? I have not done anything but express how I see the character would react to reading the story. And I can tell you, I have opposable thumbs and can read perfectly fine. And I can tell you that I know exactly what this sight is for. It is for people who want to write and be creative with characters and plots and it makes them feel good. And you are not helping these people by saying they have a brain the size of bacteria. And I will **NOT ** apologize for people laughing and having fun reading my fan fiction. And I do believe it is you who needs to buy a shoehorn and pry your head out of your ass. And I do pity you because you have nothing better to do than to sit around and go on different fan fictions and hate on the authors. And as for my IQ being a 7, I can assure you it is not because I am in all advanced classes. So, all I want to say my dear sir, is that **YOU **suck for hating on writers who want to do something with their lives. Was that clear enough for? Hope you have a good day (not).

Sincerely,

Percabethlvrknowsall, member of the you better shut the hell up and stop hating on people and their writing committee.

Sorry for that guys. That guy just really pissed me off and yeah. And guys, I love Leo, but I just feel like Rick is going to have Leo stay in Tartarus so the doors can close. Pkay, now on with the story because I have talked enough.

Disclaimer: I don't own the books. Rick does. But I do own my OCs.

**Recap: The adult versions are called their names and the teens nicknames. **

******That's kind of the way I felt seeing Camp Half-Blood again.**

******On the surface, things didn't look all that different. The Big House was still there with its blue gabled roof and its wraparound porch. The strawberry fields still baked in the sun. The same white-columned Greek buildings were scattered around the valley-the amphitheater, the combat arena, the dining pavilion overlooking Long Island Sound. And nestled between the woods and the creek were the same cabins-a crazy assortment of twelve buildings, each representing a different Olympian god.**

**Percy(16) looked down and was sad that he hadn't seen Camp in so long. He longed to be training there. And the campfires were always the best. He missed the Capture The Flag games. But he missed his friends even more.**

******But there was an air of danger now. You could tell something was wrong. Instead of playing volleyball in the sandpit, counselors and satyrs were stockpiling weapons in the tool shed. Dryads armed with bows and arrows talked nervously at the edge of the woods. The forest looked sickly, the grass in the meadow was pale yellow, and the fire marks on Half-Blood Hill stood out like ugly scars.**

All the demigods looked down.

******Somebody had messed with my favorite place in the world, and I was not … well, a happy camper.**

"Cheesy." Nico(16) said. Percy(16) rolled his eyes.

******As we made our way to the Big House, I recognized a lot of kids from last summer. Nobody stopped to talk. Nobody said, "Welcome me did double takes when they saw Tyson, but most just walked grimly past and carried on with their duties-running messages, toting swords to sharpen on the grinding wheels. The camp felt like a military school. And believe me, I know. I've been kicked out of a couple.**

******None of that mattered to Tyson. He was absolutely fascinated by everything he saw. "Whasthat!" he gasped.**

******"The stables for pegasi," I said. "The winged horses."**

******"Whasthat!"**

******"Um … those are the toilets."**

"Awkward..." Thalia(16) laughed.

"Yeah it was." Percy said.

******"Whasthat!"**

******"The cabins for the campers. If they don't know who your Olympian parent is, they put you in the Hermes cabin-that brown one over there-until you're determined. Then, once they know, they put you in your dad or mom's group."**

******He looked at me in awe. "You … have a cabin?"**

******"Number three." I pointed to a low gray building made of sea stone.**

Percy(16) smiled at the mention of his cabin.

He really missed it. He couldn't wait to see it.

******"You live with friends in the cabin?"**

******"No. No, just me."**

**"Not any more." Both Percy's said.**

**I didn't feel like explaining. The embarrassing truth: I was the only one who stayed in that cabin because I wasn't supposed to be alive. The "Big Three" gods-Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades-had made a pact after World War II not to have any more children with mortals. We were more powerful than regular half-bloods. **

**"Damn right we are." Thalia(16) and Nico(16) said**

******We were too unpredictable. When we got mad we tended to cause problems … like World War II, for instance. The "Big Three" pact had only been broken twice-once when Zeus sired Thalia, **

**"Actually, Zeus broke it twice." Poseidon ponted out, looking at both Jason's **

******once when Poseidon sired me. Neither of us should've been born.**

******Thalia had gotten herself turned into a pine tree when she was twelve. Me … well, I was doing my best not to follow her example. I had nightmares about what Poseidon might turn me into if I were ever on the verge of death- plankton, maybe. ********Or a floating patch of kelp.**

"I wouldn't turn you into those." Poseidon said.

"Good to know." Percy(35) said.

"I would turn you into Seaweed." Thalia, Nico, Annabeth, Will, and Lucy cracked up.

******When we got to the Big House, we found Chiron in his apartment, listening to his favorite 1960s lounge music while he packed his saddlebags. I guess I should mention-Chiron is a centaur. From the waist up he looks like a regular middle-aged guy with curly brown hair and a scraggly beard. From the waist down, he's a white stallion. He can pass for human by compacting his lower half into a magic wheelchair. In fact, he'd passed himself off as my Latin teacher during my sixth-grade year. But most of the time, if the ceilings are high enough, he prefers hanging out in full centaur form.**

******As soon as we saw him, Tyson froze. "Pony!" he cried in total rapture.**

Everyone laughed.

******Chiron turned, looking offended. "I beg your pardon?"**

******Annabeth ran up and hugged him. "Chiron, what's happening? You're not … leaving?" Her voice was shaky. Chiron was like a second father to her.**

Annabeth gave a small smile.

******Chiron ruffled her hair and gave her a kindly smile. "Hello, child. And Percy, my goodness. You've grown over the year!"**

"That's what they all say." Leo said.

******I swallowed. "Clarisse said you were … you were …"**

******"Fired." Chiron's eyes glinted with dark humor. "Ah, well, someone had to take the blame. Lord Zeus was most upset. The tree he'd created from the spirit of his daughter, poisoned! Mr. D had to punish someone."**

******"Besides himself, you mean," I growled. Just the thought of the camp director, Mr. D, made me angry.**

Nobody said anything.

Dionysus would have but he fell asleep.

******"But this is crazy!" Annabeth cried. "Chiron, you couldn't have had anything to do with poisoning Thalia's tree!"**

******"Nevertheless," Chiron sighed, "some in Olympus do not trust me now, under the circumstances."**

******"What circumstances?" I asked.**

******Chiron's face darkened. He stuffed a Latin-English dictionary into his saddlebag while the Frank Sinatra music oozed from his boom box.**

******Tyson was still staring at Chiron in amazement. He whimpered like he wanted to pat Chiron's flank but was afraid to come closer. "Pony?"**

******Chiron sniffed. "My dear young Cyclops! I am a centaur."**

"Sniffed? "Leo asked.

Everyone shrugged.

******"Chiron," I said. "What about the tree? What happened?"**

******He shook his head sadly. "The poison used on Thalia's pine is something from the Underworld, Percy. Some venom even I have never seen. It must have come from a monster quite deep in the pits of Tartarus."**

Zeus looked worried but didn't say anything.

Thalia looked down.

_Luke. _All the demigods who were there remembered.

******"Then we know who's responsible. Kro-"**

******"Do not invoke the titan lord's name, Percy. Especially not here, not now."**

******"But last summer he tried to cause a civil war in Olympus! This has to be his idea. He'd get Luke to do it, that traitor."**

"I was so stupid. "Annabeth(35) murmured.

Percy(35) held her hand.

"Your not stupid."Percy(35) whisperd.

Annabeth(35) smiled and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

******"Perhaps," Chiron said. "But I fear I am being held responsible because I did not prevent it and I cannot cure it. The tree has only a few weeks of life left unless …"**

******"Unless what?" Annabeth asked.**

******"No," Chiron said. "A foolish thought. The whole valley is feeling the shock of the poison. The magical borders are deteriorating. The camp itself is dying. Only one source of magic would be strong enough to reverse the poison, and it was lost centuries ago."**

"Well Nobody found it." Percy(16) said, cracking a smile.

******"What is it?" I asked. "We'll go find it!"**

******Chiron closed his saddlebag. He pressed the stop button on his boom box. Then he turned and rested his hand on my shoulder, looking me straight in the eyes. "Percy, you must promise me that you will not act rashly. I told your mother I did not want you to come here at all this summer. It's much too dangerous. But now that you are here, stay here. Train hard. Learn to fight. But do not leave."**

"You leave don't you. "Athena asked.

Percy smiled sheepishly.

"Great. "Poseidon said.

******"Why?" I asked. "I want to do something! I can't just let the borders fail. The whole camp will be-"**

******"Overrun by monsters," Chiron said. "Yes, I fear so. But you must not let yourself be baited into hasty action! This could be a trap of the titan lord. Remember last summer! He almost took your life."**

******It was true, but still, I wanted to help so badly. I also wanted to make Kronos pay. I mean, you'd think the titan lord would've learned his lesson eons ago when he was overthrown by the gods. You'd think getting chopped into a million pieces and cast into the darkest part of the Underworld would give him a subtle clue that nobody wanted him around. But no. Because he was immortal, he was still alive down there ********in Tartarus-suffering**

**Percy and Annabeth looked down. They remembered what Nico showed them and shivered.**

**in eternal pain, hungering to return and take revenge on Olympus. He couldn't act on his own, but he was great at twisting the minds of mortals and even gods to do his dirty work.**

******The poisoning had to be his doing. Who else would be so low as to attack Thalia's tree, the only thing left of a hero who'd given her life to save her friends?**

******Annabeth was trying hard not to cry. Chiron brushed a tear from her cheek. "Stay with Percy, child," he told her. "Keep him safe. The prophecy-remember it!"**

******"I-I will."**

******"Um …" I said. "Would this be the super-dangerous prophecy that has me in it, but the gods have forbidden you to tell me about?"**

******Nobody answered.**

******"Right," I muttered. "Just checking."**

******"Chiron …" Annabeth said. "You told me the gods made you immortal only so long as you were needed to train heroes. If they dismiss you from camp-"**

******"Swear you will do your best to keep Percy from danger," he insisted. "Swear upon the River Styx."**

******"I-I swear it upon the River Styx," Annabeth said.**

******Thunder rumbled outside.**

"I defiantly kept that promise." Annabeth said.

******"Very well," Chiron said. He seemed to relax just a little. "Perhaps my name will be cleared and I shall return. Until then, I go to visit my wild kinsmen in the Everglades. It's possible they know of some cure for the poisoned tree that I have forgotten. In any event, I will stay in exile until this matter is resolved … one way or another."**

******Annabeth stifled a sob. Chiron patted her shoulder awkwardly. "There, now, child. I must entrust your safety to Mr. D and the new activities director. We must hope … well, perhaps they won't destroy the camp quite as quickly as I fear."**

******"Who is this Tantalus guy, anyway?" I demanded. "Where does he get off taking your job?"**

******A conch horn blew across the valley. I hadn't realized how late it was. It was time for the campers to assemble for dinner.**

******"Go," Chiron said. "You will meet him at the pavilion. I will contact your mother, Percy, and let her know you're safe. No doubt she'll be worried by now. Just remember my warning! You are in grave danger. Do not think for a moment that the titan lord has forgotten you!"**

******With that, he clopped out of the apartment and down the hall, Tyson calling after him, "Pony! Don't go!"**

Everyone smiled.

******I realized I'd forgotten to tell Chiron about my dream of Grover. Now it was too late. The best teacher I'd ever had was gone, maybe for good.**

******Tyson started bawling almost as bad as Annabeth. I tried to tell them that things would be okay, but I didn't believe it.**

******The sun was setting behind the dining pavilion as the campers came up from their cabins. We stood in the shadow of a marble column and watched them file in. Annabeth was still pretty shaken up, but she promised she'd talk to us later. Then she went off to join her siblings from the Athena cabin-a dozen boys and girls with blond hair and gray eyes like hers. Annabeth wasn't the oldest, but she'd been at camp more summers than just about anybody. You could tell that by looking at her camp necklace-one bead for every summer, and Annabeth had six. No one questioned her right to lead the line.**

******Next came Clarisse, leading the Ares cabin. She had one arm in a sling and a nasty-looking gash on her cheek, but otherwise her encounter with the bronze bulls didn't seem to have fazed her. Someone had taped a piece of paper to her back that said, YOU MOO, GIRL! But nobody in her cabin was bothering to tell her about it.**

Everyone cracked up.

"When Clarisse found out, she almost murdered the Stolls."

******After the Ares kids came the Hephaestus cabin-six guys led by Charles Beckendorf,**

All the demigods looked down at this.

Percy, Annabeth,Thalia, and Nico missed him

Leo was sad that he never met him.

******a big fifteen-year-old African American kid. He had hands the size of catchers' mitts and a face that was hard and squinty from looking into a blacksmiths forge all day. He was nice enough once you got to know him, but no one ever called him Charlie or Chuck or Charles. Most just called him Beckendorf. Rumor was he could make anything. Give him a chunk of metal and he could create a razor-sharp sword or a robotic warrior or a singing birdbath for your grandmother's garden. Whatever you wanted.**

The demigods smiled sadly, which made Hephaestus worried.

___What happened to my son?_

******The other cabins filed in: Demeter, Apollo, Aphrodite, Dionysus. Naiads came up from the canoe lake. Dryads melted out of the trees. From the meadow came a dozen satyrs, who reminded me painfully of Grover.**

******I'd always had a soft spot for the satyrs. When they were at camp, they had to do all kinds of odd jobs for Mr. D, the director, but their most important work was out in the real world. They were the camp's seekers. They went undercover into schools all over the world, looking for potential half-bloods and escorting them back to camp. That's how I'd met Grover. He had been the first one to recognize I was a demigod.**

******After the satyrs filed in to dinner, the Hermes cabin brought up the rear. They were always the biggest cabin. Last summer, it had been led by Luke, the guy who'd fought with Thalia and Annabeth on top of Half-Blood Hill. For a while, before Poseidon had claimed me, I'd lodged in the Hermes cabin. Luke had befriended me … and then he'd tried to kill me.**

******Now the Hermes cabin was led by Travis and Connor Stoll.**

"And what good has that done to camp?" Thalia asked.

******They weren't twins, but they looked so much alike it didn't matter. I could never remember which one was older. They were both tall and skinny, with mops of brown hair that hung in their eyes. They wore orange CAMP HALF-BLOOD T-shirts untucked over baggy shorts, and they had those elfish features all Hermes's kids had: upturned eyebrows, sarcastic smiles, a gleam in their eyes whenever they looked at you-like they were about to drop a firecracker down your shirt. I'd always thought it was funny that the god of thieves would have kids with the last name "Stoll," but the only time I mentioned it to Travis and Connor, they both stared at me blankly like they didn't get the joke.**

Everyone laughed.

"That's actually pretty funny." Nico said.

******As soon as the last campers had filed in, I led Tyson into the middle of the pavilion. Conversations faltered. Heads turned. "Who invited that?" somebody at the Apollo table murmured.**

******I glared in their direction, but I couldn't figure out who'd spoken.**

******From the head table a familiar voice drawled, "Well, well, if it isn't Peter Johnson. My millennium is complete."**

******I gritted my teeth. "Percy Jackson … sir."**

**"Whatever." Dionysus said. All the demigods rolled their eyes.**

******Mr. D sipped his Diet Coke. "Yes. Well, as you young people say these days: Whatever."**

******He was wearing his usual leopard-pattern Hawaiian shirt, walking shorts, and tennis shoes with black socks. With his pudgy belly and his blotchy red face, he looked like a Las Vegas tourist who'd stayed up too late in the casinos. Behind him, a nervous-looking satyr was peeling the skins off grapes and handing them to Mr. D one at a time.**

******Mr. D's real name is Dionysus. The god of wine. Zeus appointed him director of Camp Half-Blood to dry out for a hundred years-a punishment for chasing some off-limits wood nymph.**

******Next to him, where Chiron usually sat (or stood, in centaur form), was someone I'd never seen before-a pale, horribly thin man in a threadbare orange prisoner's jumpsuit. The number over his pocket read 0001. He had blue shadows under his eyes, dirty fingernails, and badly cut gray hair, like his last haircut had been done with a weed whacker. He stared at me; his eyes made me nervous. He looked … fractured. Angry and frustrated and hungry all at the same time.**

"That's because he was." Annabeth said.

"I know."

******"This boy," Dionysus told him, "you need to watch. Poseidon's child, you know."**

******"Ah!" the prisoner said. "That one."**

******His tone made it obvious that he and Dionysus had already discussed me at length.**

******"I am Tantalus," the prisoner said, smiling coldly. "On special assignment here until, well, until my Lord Dionysus decides otherwise. And you, Perseus Jackson, I do expect you to refrain from causing any more trouble."**

******"Trouble?" I demanded.**

******Dionysus snapped his fingers. A newspaper appeared on the table-the front page of today's New York Post, There was my yearbook picture from Meriwether Prep. It was hard for me to make out the headline, but I had a pretty good guess what it said. Something like: Thirteen-Year-Old Lunatic Torches Gymnasium.**

"You never get a break do you?" Demeter asked.

"Nope"

******"Yes, trouble," Tantalus said with satisfaction. "You caused plenty of it last summer, I understand."**

******I was too mad to speak. Like it was my fault the gods had almost gotten into a civil war?**

******A satyr inched forward nervously and set a plate of barbecue in front of Tantalus. The new activities director licked his lips. He looked at his empty goblet and said, "Root beer. Barq's special stock. 1967."**

******The glass filled itself with foamy soda. Tantalus stretched out his hand hesitantly, as if he were afraid the goblet was hot.**

******"Go on, then, old fellow," Dionysus said, a strange sparkle in his eyes. "Perhaps now it will work."**

******Tantalus grabbed for the glass, but it scooted away before he could touch it. A few drops of root beer spilled, and Tantalus tried to dab them up with his fingers, but the drops rolled away like quicksilver before he could touch them. He growled and turned toward the plate of barbecue. He picked up a fork and tried to stab a piece of brisket, but the plate skittered down the table and flew off the end, straight into the coals of the brazier.**

"That was always funny." Percy laughed.

******"Blast!" Tantalus muttered.**

******"Ah, well," Dionysus said, his voice dripping with false sympathy. "Perhaps a few more days. Believe me, old chap, working at this camp will be torture enough. I'm sure your old curse will fade eventually."**

******"Eventually," muttered Tantalus, staring at Dionysus's Diet Coke. "Do you have any idea how dry one's throat gets after three thousand years?"**

******"You're that spirit from the Fields of Punishment," I said. "The one who stands in the lake with the fruit tree hanging over you, but you can't eat or drink."**

******Tantalus sneered at me. "A real scholar, aren't you, boy?"**

**"Actually I know that when we walked past him." Percy said.**

******"You must've done something really horrible when you were alive," I said, mildly impressed. "What was it?"**

**"He pissed the gods off more than I do."**

******Tantalus's eyes narrowed. Behind him, the satyrs were shaking their heads vigorously, trying to warn me.**

******"I'll be watching you, Percy Jackson," Tantalus said. "I don't want any problems at my camp."**

******"Your camp has problems already … sir."**

******"Oh, go sit down, Johnson," Dionysus sighed. "I believe that table over there is ********yours-the one where no one else ever wants to sit."**

******My face was burning, but I knew better than to talk back. Dionysus was an overgrown brat, but he was an immortal, super powerful overgrown brat. I said, "Come on, Tyson."**

"He is. "Zeus said.

He got a snore in reply.

******"Oh, no," Tantalus said. "The monster stays here. We must decide what to do with it."**

******"Him," I snapped. "His name is Tyson."**

******The new activities director raised an eyebrow.**

******"Tyson saved the camp," I insisted. "He pounded those bronze bulls. Otherwise they would've burned down this whole place."**

******"Yes," Tantalus sighed, "and what a pity that would've been."**

******Dionysus snickered.**

******"Leave us," Tantalus ordered, "while we decide this creature's fate."**

******Tyson looked at me with fear in his one big eye, but I knew I couldn't disobey a direct order from the camp directors. Not openly, anyway.**

******"I'll be right over here, big guy," I promised. "Don't worry. We'll find you a good place to sleep tonight."**

******Tyson nodded. "I believe you. You are my friend."**

******Which made me feel a whole lot guiltier.**

******I trudged over to the Poseidon table and slumped onto the bench. A wood nymph brought me a plate of Olympian olive-and-pepperoni pizza, but I wasn't hungry. I'd been almost killed twice today. I'd managed to end my school year with a complete disaster. Camp Half-Blood was in serious trouble and Chiron had told me not to do anything about it.**

******I didn't feel very thankful, but I took my dinner, as was customary, up to the bronze brazier and scraped part of it into the flames.**

******"Poseidon," I murmured, "accept my offering."**

******And send me some help while you're at it, I prayed silently. Please.**

******The smoke from the burning pizza changed into something fragrant-the smell of a clean sea breeze with wild-flowers mixed in-but I had no idea if that meant my father was really listening.**

"I'm always listening." Poseidon said.

Percy smiled.

******I went back to my seat. I didn't think things could get much worse. But then Tantalus had one of the satyrs blow the conch horn to get our attention for announcements.**

******"Yes, well," Tantalus said, once the talking had died down. "Another fine meal! Or so I am told." As he spoke, he inched his hand toward his refilled dinner plate, as if maybe the food wouldn't notice what he was doing, but it did. It shot away down the table as soon as he got within six inches.**

******"And here on my first day of authority," he continued, "I'd like to say what a pleasant form of punishment it is to be here. Over the course of the summer, I hope to torture, er, interact with each and every one of you children. You all look good enough to eat."**

******Dionysus clapped politely, leading to some halfhearted applause from the satyrs. Tyson was still standing at the head table, looking uncomfortable, but every time he tried to scoot out of the limelight, Tantalus pulled him back.**

******"And now some changes!" Tantalus gave the campers a crooked smile. "We are reinstituting the chariot races!"**

******Murmuring broke out at all the tables-excitement, fear, disbelief.**

******"Now I know," Tantalus continued, raising his voice, "that these races were discontinued some years ago due to, ah, technical problems."**

******"Three deaths and twenty-six mutilations," someone at the Apollo table called.**

"those are not technical problems." Hera said.

"It means that there are less of you brats."

******"Yes, yes!" Tantalus said. "But I know that you will all join me in welcoming the return of this camp tradition. Golden laurels will go to the winning charioteers each month. Teams may register in the morning! The first race will be held in three days time. We will release you from most of your regular activities to prepare your chariots and choose your horses. Oh, and did I mention, the victorious team's cabin will have no chores for the month in which they win?"**

******An explosion of excited conversation-no KP for a whole month? No stable cleaning? Was he serious?**

******Then the last person I expected to object did so.**

******"But, sir!" Clarisse said. She looked nervous, but she stood up to speak from the Ares table. Some of the campers snickered when they saw the YOU MOO, GIRL! sign on her back. "What about patrol duty? I mean, if we drop everything to ready our chariots-"**

******"Ah, the hero of the day," Tantalus exclaimed. "Brave Clarisse, who single-handedly bested the bronze bulls!"**

******Clarisse blinked, then blushed. "Um, I didn't-"**

******"And modest, too." Tantalus grinned. "Not to worry, my dear! This is a summer camp. We are here to enjoy ourselves, yes?"**

******"But the tree-"**

******"And now," Tantalus said, as several of Clarisse's cabin mates pulled her back into her seat, "before we proceed to the campfire and sing-along, one slight housekeeping issue. Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase have seen fit, for some reason, to bring this here." Tantalus waved a hand toward Tyson.**

******Uneasy murmuring spread among the campers. A lot of sideways looks at me. I wanted to kill Tantalus.**

******"Now, of course," he said, "Cyclopes have a reputation for being bloodthirsty monsters with a very small brain capacity. Under normal circumstances, I would release this beast into the woods and have you hunt it down with torches and pointed sticks. But who knows? Perhaps this Cyclops is not as horrible as most of ********its brethren. Until it proves worthy of destruction, we need a place to keep it! I've thought about the stables, but that will make the horses nervous. Hermes's cabin, possibly?"**

******Silence at the Hermes table. Travis and Connor Stoll developed a sudden interest in the tablecloth. I couldn't blame them. The Hermes cabin was always full to bursting. There was no way they could take in a six-foot-three Cyclops.**

"If there was room, they would have taken him." Percy said.

******"Come now," Tantalus chided. "The monster may be able to do some menial chores. Any suggestions as to where such a beast should be kenneled?"**

******Suddenly everybody gasped.**

******Tantalus scooted away from Tyson in surprise. All I could do was stare in disbelief at the brilliant green light that was about to change my life-a dazzling holographic image that had appeared above Tyson's head.**

******With a sickening twist in my stomach, I remembered what Annabeth had said about Cyclopes, They're the children of nature spirits and gods … Well, one god in particular, usually …**

******Swirling over Tyson was a glowing green trident-the same symbol that had appeared above me the day Poseidon had claimed me as his son.**

******There was a moment of awed silence.**

******Being claimed was a rare event. Some campers waited in vain for it their whole lives. When I'd been claimed by Poseidon last summer, everyone had reverently knelt. But now, they followed Tantalus's lead, and Tantalus roared with laughter. "Well! I think we know where to put the beast now. By the gods, I can see the family resemblance!"**

Poseidon growled.

******Everybody laughed except Annabeth and a few of my other friends.**

******Tyson didn't seem to notice. He was too mystified, trying to swat the glowing trident that was now fading over his head. He was too innocent to understand how much they were making fun of him, how cruel people were.**

******But I got it.**

******I had a new cabin mate. I had a monster for a half-brother.**

**"I though that-" Leo started.**

**"I was a bit embarrassed." Percy said. Leo handed the book to Thalia, when suddenly, there was a bright light.**

******AN **

******I know it's not that good, but that jerk that I was talking about earlier made me sorta lose some inspiration. Don't worry. I'll get my Mojo back soon. Adios friends!**


End file.
